History of Russia
Heads of the stateTHE ROMANOVS
Emperor Nicholas II (1868-1918)
Reign
1894-1917.Parents: Emperor Alexander III Alexandrovich and Empress Maria Fedorovna
Wife:
Alexandra Fedorovna, Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt (1872-1918).
Married: 14 November 1894.
Children:
Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918). Grand Duchess.
Tatiana Nikolaevna (1897-1918). Grand Duchess.
Maria Nikolaevna (1899-1918). Grand Duchess.
Anastasia Nikolaevna (1901-1918). Grand Duchess.
Alexei Nikolaevich (1904-1918) Tsarevich.
Nikolas, Alexandra and their children were exiled to Ekaterinburg, where they were shot on the night of 16/17 July 1918.
Important events:
......1890-1893 Back in the capital, Nicholas continued his relationship with Mathilde Kschessinska. Although not blessed with long legs, she had beautiful eyes and was a talented dancer. She came from a family ballet dancers and was the first Russian ballerina to master thirty-two consecutive fouettes. With her technical skill and excellent connections inside the Imperial family, Kschessinska quickly became the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater.
......1868-1894 Alexander III was strict with the Romanov family. His children did not have any independence and he reduced the number of grand dukes. All relatives were the objects of the tsar's will and obliged to serve the nation. The emperor's word was law. One of his courtiers said that when the tsar spoke, "he gave the impression of being on the point of striking you".
......1896 Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned in the Moscow Kremlin on 14 May 1896. The service was performed at the Dormition Cathedral by Metropolitan Palladius of St Petersburg, with the help of the Metropolitans of Kiev and Moscow. Wearing their coronation robes, the tsar and tsarina led a procession to the Kremlin Palace. When they reached the top of the red Stairway, they turned and bowed to the people.
......1905 Alexander Mosolov, director of the court chancellery, on Bloody Sunday: "The events of 9 January 1905 are too well known to be repeated here. That day, I was astonished at the senseless and aimless attacks of the cavalry on the crowd and the inequity of the commands issued by chiefs." according to the official figures, ninety-six people were killed and 330 were injured. The unofficial reports suggest that 4,900 people suffered. The families of the dead were given one thousand rubles in compensation.
......1905-1917 On 17 October 1905, Nicholas II signed a manifesto promising to create a parliament or Duma. The Duma met at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg between 1906 and 1917. There was a total of four sessions. The First Duma lasted 72 days, while the Second Duma lasted 101 days. Both were dissolved by the tsar and many deputies were arrested.
......1913 In 1913, there were 2,585 automobiles on the roads of St Petersburg - 221 were government property, 328 were taxis and the rest belonged to private individuals or firms. The first highway code was published in 1901, establishing a speed limit of twelve versts or eight miles an hour.
Nicholas II was born at Tsarskoe Selo on 6 May 1868. He received a good education at home and was read a special course of lectures between 1885 and 1890. Histutors included Konstantin Pobedonostsev (procurator of the Holy Synod), Nikolai Bunge (minister of finance), Nikolai Girs (minister of foreign affairs), generals Mikhail Dragomilov and Nikolai Obruchev, historian Vasily Kluchevsky and composer and military engineer Cesar Coi. The teachers never actually learnt how well their pupil had understood their lectures, however, for they were not allowed to ask him any questions, while he himself never asked any. Nicholas also served as on officer at army camps near St Petersburg. Count Sergius Witte wrote that he had the "education of an average guards colonel from a good family".
In 1890, Nicholas alarmed his parents by beginning a love affair with a ballet dancer. The object of his desire was Mathilde Kschessinska, whom he continued to see right up until his engagement to Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1893. Alexander II decided to combat his infatuation by sending Nicholas on a long voyage round the world. The tsarevich would sail through the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal to India and Japan, before landing at Vladivostok, where he would disembark and return through Siberia to St Petersburg.
The trip was carefully planned by Nicholas's parents to give him a lesson in diplomacy. Recommendations were sent to the Russian ambassador or governor of the places he would visit, describing in detail what could be seen and what should not be seen. Alexander III even drafted the welcoming speeches read to his son.
Nicholas was accompanied by his younger brother, Georgy, who suffered from tuberculosis. The two brothers were close in age and their parents hoped that the sun and sea air would restore Georgy's health. They were joined by other young men from good families, including Prince Baryatinsky (suite general), Prince Obolensky (Horse Guards Regiment), Prince Kochubei (Cavalry Guards) and Prince Ukhtomsky (Department of Foreign Confessions).
On 23 October 1890, Nicholas and his companions boarded the Memory of Azovand set sail for Athens, where they were joined by Prince George of Greece. The royal party stopped at Egypt to visit the Suez Canal and the pyramids. On board the ship, they spent most of their time indulging in the traditional entertainment of all officers. During one drinking session, Georgy fell and hurt his chest, aggravating his illness. His parents advised him to land at the nearest port and return to Russia. He died of consumption in 1899.
In April 1891, the Memory of Azov entered the old Japanese capital of Kyoto. From there, the company traveled to the small town of Otsu, where an attempt was made on Nicholas's life. A policeman ran up and struck him on the head with his sword, just above the right ear. The assailant raised his sword to strike again, but Nicholas jumped out of the rickshaw in which they were travelling, while everyone else turned and fled. Prince George of Greece came to the rescue, knocking the policemen down with his stick and holding him until reinforcements arrived.
Nicholas's parents ordered him to immediately return to Russia. Travelling through Siberia to St Petersburg, he made a stop at the town of Tobolsk, where he would later spend nine months as a prisoner of the revolutionary government.
Back in the capital, Nicholas continued his relationship with Mathilde Kschessinska. Although not blessed with long legs, she had beautiful eyes and was a talented dancer. She came from a family ballet dancers and was the first Russian ballerina to master thirty-two consecutive fouettes. With her technical skill and excellent connections inside the Imperial family, Kschessinska quickly became the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater.
After Nicholas married Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, Kschessinska took up with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who was responsible for the Russian artillery and the theatrical society. Russian joked: " Thanks to the grand duke, we have a fine ballet and a terrible artillery".
Kschessinska's next admirer was Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich - despite a seven-year age difference. In 1902, she gave birth to a son called Vladimir, who was given an hereditary title and the surname Krasinky by the tsar. His original patronymic was Sergeyevich ("son of Sergei") as Mathilde was at that time the common-law wife of Grand Duke Sergei. After marrying Grand Duke Andrei in France in 1921 and converting from Catholicism to Orthodoxy in 1925, Vladimir's patronymic was changed to Andreyeyich ("son of Andrei"). Kschessinska died in Paris in 1971, a few months short of her hundredth birthday.
Before ascending the throne, Nicholas commanded a battalion of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards. He also acquired experience in government by attending the sittings of the state Council and Cabinet of Ministers and heading the Trans-Siberian Railway Construction Committee.
Nicholas became emperor of Russia on 21 October 1894 and was crowned on 14 May 1896. During the coronation celebration, 1,300 people were crushed to death and tens of thousands were injured in a stampede for souvenirs at Khodynska Field outside Moscow. Khodynsko was the first in a long line of bloody events during the reign of Nicholas II. It was followed by the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Bloody Sunday (9 January 1905), the crushing of an armed uprising in Moscow ( December 1905), revolutionary terror, police retribution, Jewish pogroms organised by the Black Hundreds, the shooting of striking workers at the Lena Gold Mines (1912) and, finally, the First World War (1914). The tsar became known as "Nicholas the Bloody", although Russian blood continued to pour long after his abdication.
Like most people, Nicholas II was simply a mixture of good and bad. He has been variously described as "kind and extremely well brought-up" (Count Sergius Witte) and "a savage in love with the autocracy" (Vasily Klyuchevsky). The poet Alexander Blok perhaps best summed up his dilemma: "Stubborn yet weak-willed, nervy yet lackadaisical, harassed and cautious in speech, Nicholas II ceased to be his own master. Falling into power of those whom he himself had appointed, he failed to understand the true nature of things or to take any decisive steps".
On 14 November 1894, Nicholas married Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louse Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt. The daughter of Gramd Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice Britain, Nicholas's bride was the favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She converted to Orthodoxy as Alexandra Fedorovna.
Alexander III had initially opposed the marriage, as Hesse had previously brought bad luck to Russia. Hessian princesses had been the wives of Paul I and Alexander II, who had both been murdered. The female line of Hesse carried an hereditary disease - hemophilia. Nicholas, however, insisted on marrying the woman he loved. Nicholas and Alexandra lived a life of quiet seclusion at Tsarskoe Selo. The tsar enjoyed spending time with his family, sawing and chopping wood, clearing away snow or going on long walks on foot. He also liked travelling by car, train or yacht and shooting crows in the park near the Imperial palace. The only thing he disliked was governing - unlike his wife, who constantly interfered in affairs of state, with disastrous consequences. Alexandra had been educated in England by her grandmother and studied philosophy at Heidelberg University. Dabbling in religious mysticism, she was an easy victim for various charlatans. The first was Mitka the Fool and his companion Elpidifor, who "interpreted" his mumblings. Mitka was followed by a demon-possessed woman called Daria Osipovna. Besides home-grown mystics, the empress also attracted a number of foreign occultists, including Papus from Paris, Schenk from Vienna and Philippe from Lyon.
Why did Alexandra Fedorovna turn to these people? The reason was her desire to give birth to a son. The dynasty needed a male heir and she had given birth to four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. Alexandra was so obsessed by the need to give birth to a boy that she allowed herself to be convinced that she was pregnant in 1903. She experienced all the symptoms of pregnancy and everyone awaited the birth of a son. When the time came, however, it proved to be the fruit of her imagination.
Russian remembered Alexander Pushkin's Tade of Tsar Saltan, the story of a queen who birth in the night to "not a son, not a daughter, not a mouse or frog, but an unknown little creature".
In 1904, Alexandra Fedorovna finally gave birth to a son, whom his parents called Alexei. Their joy was short-lived, however, when they discovered that he had hemophilia.
Alexei's illness increased Alexandra's tendency to cut herself off from the rest of the world. Disgruntled courtiers muttered: "If she had her way, life would be one endless tea party at Tsarskoe Selo". In 1905, however, the tsarina made a new friend. This was Anna Taneyeva, a twenty-year-old lady-in-waiting.
Anna was a chubby girl with ash-coloured hair and enormous blue eyes. She was devoter to Alexandra, who liked her simple manners. The two women spend hours together, sharing secrets, singing duets or playing together on the piano. Alexandra called her "Anya", while Anna called her "Sanya". Alexandra Fedorovna hoped that her young friend would be as happy in marriage as she was. She began looking for a husband and found one in the from of a naval officer called Alexander Vyrubov. Anna and Alexander were married in 1907. Unfortunately for Anna, Alexandra Fedorovna was a poor judge of people. Vyrubov turned out to be a drug addict and an impotent pervert. After several wretched months with her husband, Anna ran away from him, with the full support of Nicholas and Alexandra, who knew all the details of her unhappy marriage.
Alexei was a handsome little boy with blue eyes and golden curls, which later turned to auburn and became quite straight. His parents called him their "little ray of sunshine". Before he was one year old, his father took him to a parade of the Preobrazhensky Guards. The soldiers greeted him with a resounding "hurray" and the infant gurgled with delight. When he was one, his mother took him for a carriage ride and was delighted to see people along the road bowing and smiling to the young heir. Alexei grew up into an intelligent, observant, king and lively individual. He did not enjoy studying and obeyed only his father. Upon learning that he was the heir to the throne, he said: "When I am tsar, there will be no poor or unhappy people. I want everyone to be happy". During the First World War, Nicholas took him to army headquarters, where he slept alongside his father on a camp bed.
On 14 May 1905, the Russian fleet encountered the Japanese navy in the Strait of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. The Russian squadron was commanded by Admiral Rozhestvensky and consisted of 30 warships with 228 guns. The Japanese fleet was commanded by Admiral Togo and had 121 warships with 910 guns. Besides numerical superiority, the Japanese navy also had more powerful guns, thicker armour and faster ships. The loss of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima meant defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. In August 1905, Russia and Japan signed a peace treaty at Portmouth in the United States. Under the peace terms, Japan was awarded South Sakhalin, several island and the lease of Port Arthur and surrounding waters. When the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Japan in 1925, the Communists recognised the Treaty of Portsmouth, while refusing to bear political responsibility for the agreement. After the Japanese capitulation in the Second World War, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were returned to Russia.
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ was built in 1907 on the bank of the Catherine Canal in St Petersburg, where Tsar Alexander II had been fatally wounded in 1881. The building was popularly known as the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood. The church was designed by architect Alfred Parland and archimandrite Ignatius in the neo-Russian style, recreating the Muscovite architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Construction work was overseen by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, uncle of the tsar and president of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The church had nine cupolas and could hold 1,600 people. It took twenty-three years and ten months to build, costing a grand total of 4,718,786 rubles and 31 1/2 kopecks, which exceeded the original budget by over a million rubles. The official committee of investigation laid the blame on the conference secretary of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who was put on trial and sent to prison.
After the loss of the Russian fleet in the Far East, a nationwide collection was held to reequip the Baltic Fleet with new ships, as only old vessels remained after the main squadron had sailed to the Pacific Ocean. By 1914, the Baltic Fleet had five battleships, ten cruisers, fifty-nine destroyers, twenty-three torpedo boats and its own air force.
In the last ten years before the first World War, the Russian budget enjoyed a surplus of 2,400,000,000 rubles - despite the lowering of the cost of railway travel and the abolition of the system of redemption payments.
A costume ball was held at the Winter Palace on 13 February 1903. Nicholas, Alexandra and the other guests were dressed in robes from the reign of Tsar Alexis (1645-76). The ball began with a concert in the Hermitage Theater, followed by dancing in the Pavilion Room. The dances were choreographed by Josef Kschessinski, a soloist of the Imperial Ballet. The ladies formed reels, while the gentlemen performed a danse russe. There were a total of 390 guests, including sixty guardsmen. This was the last Imperial ball in Russian history.
The celebrations marking the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty began on the morning of 21 February 1913 with an artillery salute of thirty-one rounds from the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Patriarch of Antioch performed a special mass at the Kazan Cathedral. Nevsky Prospekt was lined with troops and crowds of people eager to catch a glimpse of the Imperial family. At midday, the Romanovs emerged from Palace Square in open carriages. Nicholas and Alexei were in the first carriage, drawn by a pair of horses. The second conveyed the two empresses - Alexandra Fedorovna and Maria Fedorovna - followed by the tsar's four daughters in a third carriage. The tsarevich was carried by a Cossack, his face contorted with pain. Alexandra Fedorovna had a cold and distracted air. The next day, a gala performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar was given at the Mariinsky Theater in the presence of the Imperial family, followed by a ball at the Noblemen's Assembly on 23 February.
On 1 August 1914, Russia entered the First World War on the side of Britain and France against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The first action on the Eastern Front was the Russian attack on East Prussia and Galicia. The Germans were forced to remove several regiments from France and rush them to the east. Although her two armies in East Prussia were deteated, Russia enjoyed more success against Austria-Hungary. In spring 1915, Germany decided to concentrate on the Eastern Front. While the Russians lost Poland and parts of the Baltic territories, White Russia and the Ukraine, the Germans did not succeed in their main aim - tj knock Russia out of the war. In 1916, Germany launching an offensive on the Eastern Front. General Alexei Brusilov broke through the Austro-Hungarian lines and Germany was again forced to remove troops from the Western front to save her ally. In 1917, the Russian army was too demoralised to score any success in Galicia or White Russia. After the Bolsheviks seized power, they signed a peace treaty with the central Power in March 1918.
Nicholas and Alexandra found another new friend in 1905 - Grigory Rasputin. A peasant from the village of Pokrovskoe in Tobolsk Province, Rasputin is the hero of many works of fiction and non-fiction. In books and films, he is variously portrayed as a lecherous drunkard or a mad monk. The only thing that can be said with any certainty now is that he was able to ease the sufferings of the heir. Outside the palace, Rasputin's drunken excesses and scandalous love affairs made him an inconvenient friend for the imperial family. From aristocrats and ministers down to peasants and workers, the whole country discussed the possible relationships between Nicholas, Anna, Rasputin and Alexandra. The "holy man" was said to have turned the entire court into his private harem.
After Nicholas was overthrown in February 1917, the Provisional Government formed a special commission to investigate the "criminal actions" of the tsarist regime. they were particularly interested in the role and influence of Rasputin. Although the commission never completed its work, much of the evidence was later published. Vladimir Rudnev wrote about Anna Vyrubova: "The medical examination of Anna carried out in May 1917 by the extraordinary commission of investigation establishes beyond doubt that Anna Vyrubova was a virgin".
Rudnev wrote about Rasputin: "One of the most valuable sources throwing light on Rasputin's personality is the journal of the police agent who kept him under secret surveillance ... Rasputin's love affairs were confined to nocturnal orgies with girls of immoral character, cabaret singers and several of his female petitioners ... No evidence was found to confirm his proximity to members of the upper class". The problem was not just the presence of Anna or Rasputin in the royal chambers - which had seen many colourful people throughout the three-hundred-year history of the Romanov dynasty. What angered the tsar's relatives and other members of the court was the way in which Rasputin interfered in the running of the government, particularly the appointment and dismissal of ministers. He was not simply disliked; he was loathed.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, commander-in-chief of the Russian army, premised to hang him if he visited headquarters during the First Wold War. And it was Nikolai"s wife, Anastasia, who had first introduced Nicholas and Alexandra to Rasputin. Rasputin's enemies, including two close relatives of the tsar - Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Felix Yussupov - decided to kill the hated "holy man". On the night of 16/17 December 1916, he was lured to the Yussupov Palace on the River Moika and murdered in the basement. While Rasputin's demise evoked popular rejoicing throughout the country, this joy was short-lived. His death was merely the first in a long line of mass murders.
After the revolution, Anna Vyrubova was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In December 1920, she managed to escape to Finland, where she published her memoirs in response to a false "diary" written by Alexei Tolstoy and Pavel Schegolev. She died in Helsinki on 23 July 1964.
In 1913, Russia celebrated the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. By then, however, it was clear that the autocracy was no longer relevant. Russia required other form of government in response to the rapid industrialisation of the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Russian Empire suffered a series of heavy defeats during the First World War. The army began to disintegrate and the whole country was plunged into crisis. On International Women's Day, 23 February/8 March, workers took to the streets of Petrograd, demanding bread and an end to the war and the autocracy. On 27 February, the troop mutinied and went over to the workers, signalling the start of the revolution. The tsarist ministers were arrested and new organs of power were established. On 28 February, Nicholas II left army headquarters for Tsarskoe Selo, but his train was stopped by revolutionary troops.
On 2 March 1917, under the pressure of public opinion, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favour of his brother Mikhail and signed a manifesto of abdication. The following day, Mikhail refused the throne, bringing the Romanov dynasty to an end. After Nicholas II abdicated, power passed into the hands of the Provisional Government. As he was both an admiral of the British navy (28 May 1908) and field-marshal of the British army (16 February 1916), Russia suggested that Britain offer political asylum to the former tsar. When Nicholas's cousin, King George V of England, turned down this request, the Provisional Government decided it would be safer to remove ex-tsar and his family to Tobolsk in Siberia.
Their position deteriorated after the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917. Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were sent to Ekaterinburg, where they and their servants were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House on the night of 16/17 Jule 1918.
In 1991, human remains were discovered in forest near Ekaterinburg. A Russian government commission ruled that they belonged to the former tsar, his family and servants.
On 17 July 1998, the remains of Nicholas and Alexandra, their daughters Olga, Tatiana and Maria, Yevgeny Botkin (doctor), Anna Demidova (maid), Aloisy Trupp (valet) and Ivan Kharitonov (cook) were buried it the St Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The funeral service was attended by President Boris Yeltsin and read by Father Boris Glebov, senior priest of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The name of Nicholas and his family were not mentioned in the prayers for the souls of the dead, as the church disagreed with the findings of the government commission.
On 14 August 2000, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna and all their children were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Wife:
Alexandra Fedorovna, Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt (1872-1918).
Married: 14 November 1894.
Children:
Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918). Grand Duchess.
Tatiana Nikolaevna (1897-1918). Grand Duchess.
Maria Nikolaevna (1899-1918). Grand Duchess.
Anastasia Nikolaevna (1901-1918). Grand Duchess.
Alexei Nikolaevich (1904-1918) Tsarevich.
Nikolas, Alexandra and their children were exiled to Ekaterinburg, where they were shot on the night of 16/17 July 1918.
Important events:
- 1895 - Alexander Popov invents the radio telegraph.
- 1896 - Signing of a Sino-Russian alliance against Japan and construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway Line.
- 1896 - Rapprochement with Bulgaria.
- 1897 - First national census. New laws regulating working hours. Introduction of a new unit of currency - the gold rouble.
- 1898 - Sino-Russian convention leasing the Liaotung Peninsula and Port Arthur to Russia.
- 1898 - Nicholas II calls for an end to the armaments race and initiates two peace conferences at The Hague (1899, 1907).
- 1900- 03 - Economic crisis.
- 1902 - Government committees report on the urgent need for radical change in the tsarist administration, finances, economy and local self-government, but its conclusions are ignored.
- 1904-05 - Russo-Japanese War following Russia's refusal to withdraw troops from Manchuria after suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. The war reveals the military backwardness of Russia and leads to a wave of unrest throughout the country, the loss of several territories in the Far East and the sinking of the Russian navy at the Battle of Tsushima.
- 1904-07 - Signing of the Triple Entente between Britain, France and Russia.
- 9 January 1905 - Bloody Sunday and start of the 1905 revolution.
- 17 October 1905 - October Manifesto granting civil freedoms and a parliament or Duma.
- 1906-11 - Peter Stolypin's agricultural reforms.
- 19 August 1906 - Introduction of military courts to combat the wave of revolutionary terror.
- 9 November 1906 - Decree allowing the government to pass laws in the intervals between Duma sessions.
- 1907-14 - Sergei Diaghilev's Saisons Russes in Paris and London.
- 3 May 1908 - School reforms and the introduction of compulsory free primary education.
- 4 April 1914 - Uryankhai region (Tuva) comes under the protection of Russia.
- 1 August 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia.
- 6 August 1914 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
- August 1914 - St Petersburg is renamed Petrograd.
- October 1914 - Russia declares war on Turkey.
- 27 February 1917 - February Revolution and the overthrow of the tsarist regime.
......1890-1893 Back in the capital, Nicholas continued his relationship with Mathilde Kschessinska. Although not blessed with long legs, she had beautiful eyes and was a talented dancer. She came from a family ballet dancers and was the first Russian ballerina to master thirty-two consecutive fouettes. With her technical skill and excellent connections inside the Imperial family, Kschessinska quickly became the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater.
......1868-1894 Alexander III was strict with the Romanov family. His children did not have any independence and he reduced the number of grand dukes. All relatives were the objects of the tsar's will and obliged to serve the nation. The emperor's word was law. One of his courtiers said that when the tsar spoke, "he gave the impression of being on the point of striking you".
......1896 Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned in the Moscow Kremlin on 14 May 1896. The service was performed at the Dormition Cathedral by Metropolitan Palladius of St Petersburg, with the help of the Metropolitans of Kiev and Moscow. Wearing their coronation robes, the tsar and tsarina led a procession to the Kremlin Palace. When they reached the top of the red Stairway, they turned and bowed to the people.
......1905 Alexander Mosolov, director of the court chancellery, on Bloody Sunday: "The events of 9 January 1905 are too well known to be repeated here. That day, I was astonished at the senseless and aimless attacks of the cavalry on the crowd and the inequity of the commands issued by chiefs." according to the official figures, ninety-six people were killed and 330 were injured. The unofficial reports suggest that 4,900 people suffered. The families of the dead were given one thousand rubles in compensation.
......1905-1917 On 17 October 1905, Nicholas II signed a manifesto promising to create a parliament or Duma. The Duma met at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg between 1906 and 1917. There was a total of four sessions. The First Duma lasted 72 days, while the Second Duma lasted 101 days. Both were dissolved by the tsar and many deputies were arrested.
......1913 In 1913, there were 2,585 automobiles on the roads of St Petersburg - 221 were government property, 328 were taxis and the rest belonged to private individuals or firms. The first highway code was published in 1901, establishing a speed limit of twelve versts or eight miles an hour.
Nicholas II was born at Tsarskoe Selo on 6 May 1868. He received a good education at home and was read a special course of lectures between 1885 and 1890. Histutors included Konstantin Pobedonostsev (procurator of the Holy Synod), Nikolai Bunge (minister of finance), Nikolai Girs (minister of foreign affairs), generals Mikhail Dragomilov and Nikolai Obruchev, historian Vasily Kluchevsky and composer and military engineer Cesar Coi. The teachers never actually learnt how well their pupil had understood their lectures, however, for they were not allowed to ask him any questions, while he himself never asked any. Nicholas also served as on officer at army camps near St Petersburg. Count Sergius Witte wrote that he had the "education of an average guards colonel from a good family".
In 1890, Nicholas alarmed his parents by beginning a love affair with a ballet dancer. The object of his desire was Mathilde Kschessinska, whom he continued to see right up until his engagement to Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1893. Alexander II decided to combat his infatuation by sending Nicholas on a long voyage round the world. The tsarevich would sail through the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal to India and Japan, before landing at Vladivostok, where he would disembark and return through Siberia to St Petersburg.
The trip was carefully planned by Nicholas's parents to give him a lesson in diplomacy. Recommendations were sent to the Russian ambassador or governor of the places he would visit, describing in detail what could be seen and what should not be seen. Alexander III even drafted the welcoming speeches read to his son.
Nicholas was accompanied by his younger brother, Georgy, who suffered from tuberculosis. The two brothers were close in age and their parents hoped that the sun and sea air would restore Georgy's health. They were joined by other young men from good families, including Prince Baryatinsky (suite general), Prince Obolensky (Horse Guards Regiment), Prince Kochubei (Cavalry Guards) and Prince Ukhtomsky (Department of Foreign Confessions).
On 23 October 1890, Nicholas and his companions boarded the Memory of Azovand set sail for Athens, where they were joined by Prince George of Greece. The royal party stopped at Egypt to visit the Suez Canal and the pyramids. On board the ship, they spent most of their time indulging in the traditional entertainment of all officers. During one drinking session, Georgy fell and hurt his chest, aggravating his illness. His parents advised him to land at the nearest port and return to Russia. He died of consumption in 1899.
In April 1891, the Memory of Azov entered the old Japanese capital of Kyoto. From there, the company traveled to the small town of Otsu, where an attempt was made on Nicholas's life. A policeman ran up and struck him on the head with his sword, just above the right ear. The assailant raised his sword to strike again, but Nicholas jumped out of the rickshaw in which they were travelling, while everyone else turned and fled. Prince George of Greece came to the rescue, knocking the policemen down with his stick and holding him until reinforcements arrived.
Nicholas's parents ordered him to immediately return to Russia. Travelling through Siberia to St Petersburg, he made a stop at the town of Tobolsk, where he would later spend nine months as a prisoner of the revolutionary government.
Back in the capital, Nicholas continued his relationship with Mathilde Kschessinska. Although not blessed with long legs, she had beautiful eyes and was a talented dancer. She came from a family ballet dancers and was the first Russian ballerina to master thirty-two consecutive fouettes. With her technical skill and excellent connections inside the Imperial family, Kschessinska quickly became the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater.
After Nicholas married Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, Kschessinska took up with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who was responsible for the Russian artillery and the theatrical society. Russian joked: " Thanks to the grand duke, we have a fine ballet and a terrible artillery".
Kschessinska's next admirer was Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich - despite a seven-year age difference. In 1902, she gave birth to a son called Vladimir, who was given an hereditary title and the surname Krasinky by the tsar. His original patronymic was Sergeyevich ("son of Sergei") as Mathilde was at that time the common-law wife of Grand Duke Sergei. After marrying Grand Duke Andrei in France in 1921 and converting from Catholicism to Orthodoxy in 1925, Vladimir's patronymic was changed to Andreyeyich ("son of Andrei"). Kschessinska died in Paris in 1971, a few months short of her hundredth birthday.
Before ascending the throne, Nicholas commanded a battalion of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards. He also acquired experience in government by attending the sittings of the state Council and Cabinet of Ministers and heading the Trans-Siberian Railway Construction Committee.
Nicholas became emperor of Russia on 21 October 1894 and was crowned on 14 May 1896. During the coronation celebration, 1,300 people were crushed to death and tens of thousands were injured in a stampede for souvenirs at Khodynska Field outside Moscow. Khodynsko was the first in a long line of bloody events during the reign of Nicholas II. It was followed by the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Bloody Sunday (9 January 1905), the crushing of an armed uprising in Moscow ( December 1905), revolutionary terror, police retribution, Jewish pogroms organised by the Black Hundreds, the shooting of striking workers at the Lena Gold Mines (1912) and, finally, the First World War (1914). The tsar became known as "Nicholas the Bloody", although Russian blood continued to pour long after his abdication.
Like most people, Nicholas II was simply a mixture of good and bad. He has been variously described as "kind and extremely well brought-up" (Count Sergius Witte) and "a savage in love with the autocracy" (Vasily Klyuchevsky). The poet Alexander Blok perhaps best summed up his dilemma: "Stubborn yet weak-willed, nervy yet lackadaisical, harassed and cautious in speech, Nicholas II ceased to be his own master. Falling into power of those whom he himself had appointed, he failed to understand the true nature of things or to take any decisive steps".
On 14 November 1894, Nicholas married Princess Victoria Alix Helena Louse Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt. The daughter of Gramd Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice Britain, Nicholas's bride was the favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She converted to Orthodoxy as Alexandra Fedorovna.
Alexander III had initially opposed the marriage, as Hesse had previously brought bad luck to Russia. Hessian princesses had been the wives of Paul I and Alexander II, who had both been murdered. The female line of Hesse carried an hereditary disease - hemophilia. Nicholas, however, insisted on marrying the woman he loved. Nicholas and Alexandra lived a life of quiet seclusion at Tsarskoe Selo. The tsar enjoyed spending time with his family, sawing and chopping wood, clearing away snow or going on long walks on foot. He also liked travelling by car, train or yacht and shooting crows in the park near the Imperial palace. The only thing he disliked was governing - unlike his wife, who constantly interfered in affairs of state, with disastrous consequences. Alexandra had been educated in England by her grandmother and studied philosophy at Heidelberg University. Dabbling in religious mysticism, she was an easy victim for various charlatans. The first was Mitka the Fool and his companion Elpidifor, who "interpreted" his mumblings. Mitka was followed by a demon-possessed woman called Daria Osipovna. Besides home-grown mystics, the empress also attracted a number of foreign occultists, including Papus from Paris, Schenk from Vienna and Philippe from Lyon.
Why did Alexandra Fedorovna turn to these people? The reason was her desire to give birth to a son. The dynasty needed a male heir and she had given birth to four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. Alexandra was so obsessed by the need to give birth to a boy that she allowed herself to be convinced that she was pregnant in 1903. She experienced all the symptoms of pregnancy and everyone awaited the birth of a son. When the time came, however, it proved to be the fruit of her imagination.
Russian remembered Alexander Pushkin's Tade of Tsar Saltan, the story of a queen who birth in the night to "not a son, not a daughter, not a mouse or frog, but an unknown little creature".
In 1904, Alexandra Fedorovna finally gave birth to a son, whom his parents called Alexei. Their joy was short-lived, however, when they discovered that he had hemophilia.
Alexei's illness increased Alexandra's tendency to cut herself off from the rest of the world. Disgruntled courtiers muttered: "If she had her way, life would be one endless tea party at Tsarskoe Selo". In 1905, however, the tsarina made a new friend. This was Anna Taneyeva, a twenty-year-old lady-in-waiting.
Anna was a chubby girl with ash-coloured hair and enormous blue eyes. She was devoter to Alexandra, who liked her simple manners. The two women spend hours together, sharing secrets, singing duets or playing together on the piano. Alexandra called her "Anya", while Anna called her "Sanya". Alexandra Fedorovna hoped that her young friend would be as happy in marriage as she was. She began looking for a husband and found one in the from of a naval officer called Alexander Vyrubov. Anna and Alexander were married in 1907. Unfortunately for Anna, Alexandra Fedorovna was a poor judge of people. Vyrubov turned out to be a drug addict and an impotent pervert. After several wretched months with her husband, Anna ran away from him, with the full support of Nicholas and Alexandra, who knew all the details of her unhappy marriage.
Alexei was a handsome little boy with blue eyes and golden curls, which later turned to auburn and became quite straight. His parents called him their "little ray of sunshine". Before he was one year old, his father took him to a parade of the Preobrazhensky Guards. The soldiers greeted him with a resounding "hurray" and the infant gurgled with delight. When he was one, his mother took him for a carriage ride and was delighted to see people along the road bowing and smiling to the young heir. Alexei grew up into an intelligent, observant, king and lively individual. He did not enjoy studying and obeyed only his father. Upon learning that he was the heir to the throne, he said: "When I am tsar, there will be no poor or unhappy people. I want everyone to be happy". During the First World War, Nicholas took him to army headquarters, where he slept alongside his father on a camp bed.
On 14 May 1905, the Russian fleet encountered the Japanese navy in the Strait of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. The Russian squadron was commanded by Admiral Rozhestvensky and consisted of 30 warships with 228 guns. The Japanese fleet was commanded by Admiral Togo and had 121 warships with 910 guns. Besides numerical superiority, the Japanese navy also had more powerful guns, thicker armour and faster ships. The loss of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima meant defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. In August 1905, Russia and Japan signed a peace treaty at Portmouth in the United States. Under the peace terms, Japan was awarded South Sakhalin, several island and the lease of Port Arthur and surrounding waters. When the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with Japan in 1925, the Communists recognised the Treaty of Portsmouth, while refusing to bear political responsibility for the agreement. After the Japanese capitulation in the Second World War, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were returned to Russia.
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ was built in 1907 on the bank of the Catherine Canal in St Petersburg, where Tsar Alexander II had been fatally wounded in 1881. The building was popularly known as the Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood. The church was designed by architect Alfred Parland and archimandrite Ignatius in the neo-Russian style, recreating the Muscovite architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Construction work was overseen by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, uncle of the tsar and president of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The church had nine cupolas and could hold 1,600 people. It took twenty-three years and ten months to build, costing a grand total of 4,718,786 rubles and 31 1/2 kopecks, which exceeded the original budget by over a million rubles. The official committee of investigation laid the blame on the conference secretary of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who was put on trial and sent to prison.
After the loss of the Russian fleet in the Far East, a nationwide collection was held to reequip the Baltic Fleet with new ships, as only old vessels remained after the main squadron had sailed to the Pacific Ocean. By 1914, the Baltic Fleet had five battleships, ten cruisers, fifty-nine destroyers, twenty-three torpedo boats and its own air force.
In the last ten years before the first World War, the Russian budget enjoyed a surplus of 2,400,000,000 rubles - despite the lowering of the cost of railway travel and the abolition of the system of redemption payments.
A costume ball was held at the Winter Palace on 13 February 1903. Nicholas, Alexandra and the other guests were dressed in robes from the reign of Tsar Alexis (1645-76). The ball began with a concert in the Hermitage Theater, followed by dancing in the Pavilion Room. The dances were choreographed by Josef Kschessinski, a soloist of the Imperial Ballet. The ladies formed reels, while the gentlemen performed a danse russe. There were a total of 390 guests, including sixty guardsmen. This was the last Imperial ball in Russian history.
The celebrations marking the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty began on the morning of 21 February 1913 with an artillery salute of thirty-one rounds from the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Patriarch of Antioch performed a special mass at the Kazan Cathedral. Nevsky Prospekt was lined with troops and crowds of people eager to catch a glimpse of the Imperial family. At midday, the Romanovs emerged from Palace Square in open carriages. Nicholas and Alexei were in the first carriage, drawn by a pair of horses. The second conveyed the two empresses - Alexandra Fedorovna and Maria Fedorovna - followed by the tsar's four daughters in a third carriage. The tsarevich was carried by a Cossack, his face contorted with pain. Alexandra Fedorovna had a cold and distracted air. The next day, a gala performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar was given at the Mariinsky Theater in the presence of the Imperial family, followed by a ball at the Noblemen's Assembly on 23 February.
On 1 August 1914, Russia entered the First World War on the side of Britain and France against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The first action on the Eastern Front was the Russian attack on East Prussia and Galicia. The Germans were forced to remove several regiments from France and rush them to the east. Although her two armies in East Prussia were deteated, Russia enjoyed more success against Austria-Hungary. In spring 1915, Germany decided to concentrate on the Eastern Front. While the Russians lost Poland and parts of the Baltic territories, White Russia and the Ukraine, the Germans did not succeed in their main aim - tj knock Russia out of the war. In 1916, Germany launching an offensive on the Eastern Front. General Alexei Brusilov broke through the Austro-Hungarian lines and Germany was again forced to remove troops from the Western front to save her ally. In 1917, the Russian army was too demoralised to score any success in Galicia or White Russia. After the Bolsheviks seized power, they signed a peace treaty with the central Power in March 1918.
Nicholas and Alexandra found another new friend in 1905 - Grigory Rasputin. A peasant from the village of Pokrovskoe in Tobolsk Province, Rasputin is the hero of many works of fiction and non-fiction. In books and films, he is variously portrayed as a lecherous drunkard or a mad monk. The only thing that can be said with any certainty now is that he was able to ease the sufferings of the heir. Outside the palace, Rasputin's drunken excesses and scandalous love affairs made him an inconvenient friend for the imperial family. From aristocrats and ministers down to peasants and workers, the whole country discussed the possible relationships between Nicholas, Anna, Rasputin and Alexandra. The "holy man" was said to have turned the entire court into his private harem.
After Nicholas was overthrown in February 1917, the Provisional Government formed a special commission to investigate the "criminal actions" of the tsarist regime. they were particularly interested in the role and influence of Rasputin. Although the commission never completed its work, much of the evidence was later published. Vladimir Rudnev wrote about Anna Vyrubova: "The medical examination of Anna carried out in May 1917 by the extraordinary commission of investigation establishes beyond doubt that Anna Vyrubova was a virgin".
Rudnev wrote about Rasputin: "One of the most valuable sources throwing light on Rasputin's personality is the journal of the police agent who kept him under secret surveillance ... Rasputin's love affairs were confined to nocturnal orgies with girls of immoral character, cabaret singers and several of his female petitioners ... No evidence was found to confirm his proximity to members of the upper class". The problem was not just the presence of Anna or Rasputin in the royal chambers - which had seen many colourful people throughout the three-hundred-year history of the Romanov dynasty. What angered the tsar's relatives and other members of the court was the way in which Rasputin interfered in the running of the government, particularly the appointment and dismissal of ministers. He was not simply disliked; he was loathed.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, commander-in-chief of the Russian army, premised to hang him if he visited headquarters during the First Wold War. And it was Nikolai"s wife, Anastasia, who had first introduced Nicholas and Alexandra to Rasputin. Rasputin's enemies, including two close relatives of the tsar - Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Felix Yussupov - decided to kill the hated "holy man". On the night of 16/17 December 1916, he was lured to the Yussupov Palace on the River Moika and murdered in the basement. While Rasputin's demise evoked popular rejoicing throughout the country, this joy was short-lived. His death was merely the first in a long line of mass murders.
After the revolution, Anna Vyrubova was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In December 1920, she managed to escape to Finland, where she published her memoirs in response to a false "diary" written by Alexei Tolstoy and Pavel Schegolev. She died in Helsinki on 23 July 1964.
In 1913, Russia celebrated the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. By then, however, it was clear that the autocracy was no longer relevant. Russia required other form of government in response to the rapid industrialisation of the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Russian Empire suffered a series of heavy defeats during the First World War. The army began to disintegrate and the whole country was plunged into crisis. On International Women's Day, 23 February/8 March, workers took to the streets of Petrograd, demanding bread and an end to the war and the autocracy. On 27 February, the troop mutinied and went over to the workers, signalling the start of the revolution. The tsarist ministers were arrested and new organs of power were established. On 28 February, Nicholas II left army headquarters for Tsarskoe Selo, but his train was stopped by revolutionary troops.
On 2 March 1917, under the pressure of public opinion, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favour of his brother Mikhail and signed a manifesto of abdication. The following day, Mikhail refused the throne, bringing the Romanov dynasty to an end. After Nicholas II abdicated, power passed into the hands of the Provisional Government. As he was both an admiral of the British navy (28 May 1908) and field-marshal of the British army (16 February 1916), Russia suggested that Britain offer political asylum to the former tsar. When Nicholas's cousin, King George V of England, turned down this request, the Provisional Government decided it would be safer to remove ex-tsar and his family to Tobolsk in Siberia.
Their position deteriorated after the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917. Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were sent to Ekaterinburg, where they and their servants were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House on the night of 16/17 Jule 1918.
In 1991, human remains were discovered in forest near Ekaterinburg. A Russian government commission ruled that they belonged to the former tsar, his family and servants.
On 17 July 1998, the remains of Nicholas and Alexandra, their daughters Olga, Tatiana and Maria, Yevgeny Botkin (doctor), Anna Demidova (maid), Aloisy Trupp (valet) and Ivan Kharitonov (cook) were buried it the St Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The funeral service was attended by President Boris Yeltsin and read by Father Boris Glebov, senior priest of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The name of Nicholas and his family were not mentioned in the prayers for the souls of the dead, as the church disagreed with the findings of the government commission.
On 14 August 2000, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna and all their children were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church.
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