Tsar Nicholas II was the last monarch of Russia. The rising political tensions against his leadership led to revolutions in 1905 and 1917. How did Nicholas II rule? And how did he end up losing control over an entire empire? Let's find out!
Nicholas II Timeline
Let's look at a timeline of Nicholas II's life through the 19th and early 20th century.
| Date | Event |
| 1868 | Nicholay Aleksandrovich Romanov was born, the eldest son of Tsar Alexander III. |
| 1 November 1894 | Tsar Alexander III died. Nicholas succeeded his father. Nicholas married Alexandra three weeks later. |
| 26 May 1896 | Nicholas was coronated, becoming Tsar Nicholas II with his wife Tsarina Alexandra. |
| 1904- 1905 | Russo-Japanese War broke out following Nicholas II's attempts to expand Russia to the East. |
| 22 January 1905 | Many protesters gathered in Petrograd against the Tsar. Nicholas II ordered for the Imperial Army to fire on the crowd. This was known as Bloody Sunday and hundreds were wounded or killed. It sparked the First Russian Revolution as many workers went on strike, crippling Russia's economy. |
| 3 March 1905 | Nicholas II reluctantly agreed to establish a Duma, or parliament, like in Britain. |
| 30 October 1905 | The October Manifesto was agreed upon, turning Russia into a constitutional monarchy. All laws had to go through the Duma before being passed. |
| May 1906 | The Fundamental Laws were created. |
| 2 July 1914 | Russia entered the First World War. |
| 8 March 1917 | The February Revolution. Riots broke out in Petrograd and the Tsar ordered his troops to put them down. The government resigned and the Duma demanded the Tsar's abdication. |
| 15 March 1917 | Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne. He offered it to his brother Michael who turned it down. The Provisional Government was instated and headed by Prince Lvov. The Tsar and the Romanov family were sent into exile in Western Siberia. |
| 7 November 1917 | The October Revolution. Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government. The Russian Civil War broke out as the Whites fought as counter-revolutionaries. |
| April 1918 | The Tsar and his family were moved into exile to in the Urals under the control of Lenin's Cheka. |
| 17 July 1918 | As White forces closed in on Yekaterinburg, the Cheka were ordered to assassinate Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family, due to fears that the White Army would reinstate them. |
Nicholas II Coronation
Nicholas II's father, Alexander III, was a strong supporter of the absolute power of the monarchy. Nicholas vowed to keep this going when he assumed the throne in 1894. After his marriage to Alexandra later that year and a period of mourning, Nicholas was coronated in 1896.
The Tsar was the ruler of feudal Russia. They ruled Russia for nearly 400 years through force and authority. This often led to discontent from peasants and the working classes.
Nicholas's personality significantly contributed to his leadership style. His poor leadership skills ultimately led to the decline of the monarchy's control of Russia and the demise of the Romanov dynasty.
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas had professed that he had never wanted the position of Tsar, yet when his father died he was moved by a sense of duty to carry on his legacy. Nicholas surrounded himself with a group of incompetent delegates and he did not allow a prime minister to run the government. As Nicholas was unable to coordinate the government effectively, the departments often enacted contradictory policies.
Fig. 1 Tsar Nicholas II was coronated in 1896 and was the last monarch in Russian history.
Agriculture was kept in small, communal farms, limiting enterprising peasants who would otherwise expand their farms and generate a better economy. Industry was improving steadily, yet agriculture was bringing it down due to its lack of development.
Nicholas' poor leadership skills meant the Russian economy was in disarray, which led to discontent from both the peasants and the industrial working class.
Nicholas II of Russia Nationalism
Tsar Nicholas II was generally a nationalist with his love for Russia, which, combined with his anti-semitism, meant that he supported Jewish persecution.
Fig. 2 This cartoon was published in an American newspaper and shows a Russian Jew bearing the weight of 'Oppression' under the Tsar. It was published in 1904 after the Kishinev pogrom in 1903.
Nicholas endorsed an anti-semitic group called the Black Hundred, which conducted pogroms on Jews in the early 20th century.
A pogrom is an organised mass killing of an ethnic group. In Russia and Nazi Germany, pogroms generally targeted the Jewish population.
Nicholas' continuation of his father's policies of Russification meant that Russian Orthodox missionaries attempted to convert the other religions in the Empire and impose sanctions on the minorities who resisted.
Nicholas II of Russia Imperialism
Nicholas wanted to expand the Russian Empire in the East after his travels to Japan, China and India in his youth. In 1890, Nicholas began the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway to enable travel to the Eastern territories of Russia, with the intent of invading and occupying Japan.
Fig. 3 Photograph of the Imperial Russian army trying to transport military guns across the Trans-Siberian railway, but getting stuck in the snow, 1904.
Nicholas attempted to occupy the Japanese-controlled area of Manchuria in 1904, which Japan fiercely resisted. This led to the Russo-Japanese war (1904-5) which Nicholas was confident Russia would win. To his absolute astonishment, Japan defeated Russia within a year. Russia, as the much larger power, was utterly humiliated.
The war with Japan had made the Tsar unpopular with the working classes. A group of workers marched on the Winter Palace on 22 January 1905 to protest his poor leadership and make demands. The Tsar ordered the imperial troops to fire on the crowd, injuring and killing many, and the day was known as Bloody Sunday.
Subsequently, riots broke out and strikes began, starting the 1905 Russian Revolution (also known as the First Russian Revolution). These strikes brought the Russian economy to a standstill, and the Tsar eventually agreed to establish the Duma.
Duma
A representative assembly that would give the Russian population a voice to advise the Tsar. Similar to a council or parliament.
The parties of Octobrists and Kadets led the protests and became the key components of the Duma.
Nicholas II and Alexandra
On 26 November 1894, Nicholas married Alexandra, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Britain. The Tsar and Tsarina had 5 children, the first four being daughters before the birth of their son, Alexei.
Alexei had haemophilia, where his blood did not properly clot, making him vulnerable to bleeding to death. Alexandra sought the help of spiritual healer Grigori Rasputin to cure him, and Rasputin started to have significant influence over both Alexandra and Nicholas. Supposedly Rasputin and Alexandra had a love affair, drawing heavy criticism. Alexandra denied these rumours.
Did you know? The song 'Rasputin' by Boney M. reached the top of the charts in the 1970s. It became a big hit across Europe and even in the Soviet Union!
When Russia engaged in the First World War in 1914, Nicholas headed the Imperial Army abroad whilst Alexandra assumed Empress duties at home. She dismissed those most capable of leadership of Russia and employed people that Rasputin favoured who were unsuitable, leading the country into decline.
Fig. 4 This image appeared on an anti-monarchy leaflet published in 1916 showing Rasputin and his hold over Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Rasputin's influence over the royal family led many to question the future of Russia under the autocracy.
Alexandra's questionable leadership of Russia whilst at war contributed to the discontent that fuelled the February Revolution in 1917.
Nicholas II Abdication
The events of 1917 spellt the end of Tsar Nicholas II's rule and the Romanov dynasty. In Petrograd on 8 March 1917, many women were on the streets in massive queues for supplies whilst others were celebrating International Women's Day. Other workers in the city began striking in protest of their poor treatment. This merging of different groups on the streets soon turned into a protest against the Tsar.
Fig. 5 Photograph of Tsar Nicholas II, 1898.
Nicholas ordered the Imperial troops to fire on the protesters, but they refused. After several days of demonstrations, on 14 March the Duma formed a Provisional Government with Prince Lvov and Octobrists and Kadets from the First Russian Revolution at the helm.
Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate on 15 March at the request of the Provisional Government, who had now assumed control of Russia. The Tsar was detained and put under house arrest.
However, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, was unhappy with the new Provisional Government and planned the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917. It was successful and established Lenin as the head of a new Soviet Government with a communist political ideology.
The Tsar was exiled and moved around the country during the Russian Civil War which followed the Bolshevik Revolution.
Nicholas II Death
As the Russian Civil War raged between 1918 and 1921, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power across Russia. Some of their rivalrous White forces were Tsarists, intent on reinstating the Tsar and his family as head of state. The Tsar and his family were detained in Yekaterinburg and held by the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka.
When White forces were approaching the house they were being kept in, Lenin issued the order for the Cheka to assassinate the family. Tsar Nicholas II, his immediate descendants and their consort were shot on 17 July 1918. This assassination marked the end of the Romanov family and quashed the hopes of the Tsarist anti-Bolshevik forces.
Nicholas II - Key takeaways
- Tsar Nicholas II was coronated in 1896.
- Nicholas' character made him a particularly unpopular monarch. He refused to instate a prime minister of the Imperial government, which led to contradictory policies in agriculture and industry, creating discontent and stunting Russia's economic growth.
- Nicholas' nationalism meant that he persecuted Jews and continued the brutal policies of Russification across the Empire. Combined with Nicholas' imperialism, he instigated the failed Russo-Japanese war in 1904, which proved unpopular after Russia's series of humiliating defeats. Bloody Sunday in 1905 started the First Russian Revolution and created the Constitutional monarchy under the Duma.
- Tsarina Alexandra's controversial relationship with Rasputin meant she made poor decisions when ruling Russia whilst Nicholas fought in WWI in 1914.
- In February 1917 Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne. After the October Revolution 1917, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks rose to power, Nicholas and his family were forced into exile. They were assassinated under Lenin's commands on 17 July 1918.
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