Nicholas II

Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 18 May [<a href="/facts/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates/kb3020Wy">O.S.</a> 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last reigning <a href="/facts/Emperor_of_Russia/IKwkRYnQ">Emperor of Russia</a>, <a href="/facts/Congress_Poland/sxYtmc67">King of Congress Poland</a>, and <a href="/facts/Grand_Duke_of_Finland/uhhcGDoF">Grand Duke of Finland</a> from 1 November 1894 until <a href="/facts/Abdication_of_Nicholas_II/LDMtVqPu">his abdication</a> on 15 March 1917. He <a href="/facts/Wedding_of_Nicholas_II_and_Alexandra_Feodorovna/MAsDouxu">married</a> <a href="/facts/Alexandra_Feodorovna_(Alix_of_Hesse)/oKoCEG00">Alix of Hesse</a> (later Alexandra Feodorovna) and had five children: the <a href="/facts/OTMA/vlqMYWW4">OTMA</a> sisters – <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Nikolaevna_of_Russia/9Lma1m6e">Olga</a>, born in 1895, <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchess_Tatiana_Nikolaevna_of_Russia/lNQL1WJo">Tatiana</a>, born in 1897, <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Nikolaevna_of_Russia/s0eIVLsw">Maria</a>, born in 1899, and <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchess_Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia/FNyfXJhG">Anastasia</a>, born in 1901 — and the <a href="/facts/Tsesarevich/kavQ03td">tsesarevich</a> <a href="/facts/Alexei_Nikolaevich%2c_Tsarevich_of_Russia/2Mj5ufWF">Alexei Nikolaevich</a>, who was born in 1904.
During his reign, Nicholas gave support to the economic and political reforms promoted by his prime ministers, <a href="/facts/Sergei_Witte/XyHmGUFX">Sergei Witte</a> and <a href="/facts/Pyotr_Stolypin/KERDFRMh">Pyotr Stolypin</a>. He advocated modernisation based on foreign loans and had close ties with <a href="/facts/French_Third_Republic/I2nlEmcn">France</a>, but resisted giving the new parliament (the <a href="/facts/State_Duma_(Russian_Empire)/FQmkytLN">Duma</a>) major roles. Ultimately, progress was undermined by Nicholas's commitment to <a href="/facts/Autocratic_rule/WpzSRcND">autocratic rule</a>, strong aristocratic opposition and defeats sustained by the Russian military in the <a href="/facts/Russo-Japanese_War/YWIxIkE2">Russo-Japanese War</a> and <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a>. By March 1917, while Nicholas II was at the front, an <a href="/facts/February_Revolution/erTxrbYX">uprising</a> in <a href="/facts/Saint_Petersburg/pNuCBxaM">Petrograd</a> succeeded in seizing control of the city itself, the telegraph lines and blocking loyal reinforcements attempts to reaching the capital. The revolutionaries also halted the Tsar’s train, leaving Nicholas stranded and powerless, even though the army at the front remained loyal. With no authority remaining, he was forced to abdicate, thereby ending the <a href="/facts/Romanov_dynasty/bcQ0S7jM">Romanov dynasty</a>'s 304-year rule of Russia.
Nicholas signed the 1907 <a href="/facts/Anglo-Russian_Convention/B1HABL0F">Anglo-Russian Convention</a>, which was designed to counter <a href="/facts/German_Empire/lwQutJyN">Germany</a>'s attempts to gain influence in the Middle East; it ended the <a href="/facts/Great_Game/xs5hg8JD">Great Game</a> of confrontation between <a href="/facts/Russian_Empire/hg1g5SpV">Russia</a> and the <a href="/facts/British_Empire/hrsz0j7A">British Empire</a>. He aimed to strengthen the <a href="/facts/Franco-Russian_Alliance/0y317lDV">Franco-Russian Alliance</a> and proposed the unsuccessful <a href="/facts/Hague_Conventions_of_1899_and_1907/h61yeIjd">Hague Convention of 1899</a> to promote disarmament and peacefully solve international disputes. Domestically, he was criticised by liberals for his government's repression of political opponents and his perceived fault or inaction during the <a href="/facts/Khodynka_Tragedy/luC4zmYn">Khodynka Tragedy</a>, <a href="/facts/Pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire/lbI29JQE">anti-Jewish pogroms</a>, <a href="/facts/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)/wcVmnGVI">Bloody Sunday</a> and the violent suppression of the <a href="/facts/1905_Russian_Revolution/lXFBKGXN">1905 Russian Revolution</a>. His popularity was further damaged by the Russo-Japanese War, which saw the Russian <a href="/facts/Baltic_Fleet/F113t9E2">Baltic Fleet</a> annihilated at the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Tsushima/aLgzlCSF">Battle of Tsushima</a>, together with the loss of Russian influence over Manchuria and Korea and the <a href="/facts/Karafuto_Prefecture/NItXQ5Ie">Japanese annexation of the south of Sakhalin Island</a>. Despite this, the 1913 <a href="/facts/Romanov_Tercentenary/z1J3MwhP">Romanov Tercentenary anniversary</a> proved to be a successful festivity where the majority of the common Russian people still displayed loyalty towards the monarchy.
During the <a href="/facts/July_Crisis/6scRK47P">July Crisis</a> of 1914, Nicholas supported <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Serbia/2HSIwdv9">Serbia</a> and approved the mobilisation of the <a href="/facts/Imperial_Russian_Army/eUBgLeFn">Russian Army</a>. In response, Germany declared war on Russia and its ally France, starting <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a>. After several years of war, severe military losses led to a collapse of morale of the newly mobilized troops, increasing a likehood of the latter joining an uprising; a <a href="/facts/General_strike/U6UMVfRv">general strike</a> and a mutiny of the garrison in <a href="/facts/Petrograd/pNuCBxaM">Petrograd</a> sparked the <a href="/facts/February_Revolution/erTxrbYX">February Revolution</a> and the disintegration of the monarchy's authority. <a href="/facts/Abdication_of_Nicholas_II/LDMtVqPu">He abdicated himself</a> and on behalf of his son, then he and his family were imprisoned by the <a href="/facts/Russian_Provisional_Government/TbI9uI5T">Russian Provisional Government</a> and exiled to Siberia. The <a href="/facts/Bolsheviks/UAHzalnN">Bolsheviks</a> seized power in the <a href="/facts/October_Revolution/5q9GlMv9">October Revolution</a> and the family was held in <a href="/facts/Yekaterinburg/PgF4pldC">Yekaterinburg</a>, where <a href="/facts/Murder_of_the_Romanov_family/cdpVW85a">they were murdered</a> on 17 July 1918.
In the years following his death, Nicholas was reviled by <a href="/facts/Historiography_in_the_Soviet_Union/Xbnb48Ml">Soviet historians</a> and <a href="/facts/Propaganda_in_the_Soviet_Union/9IE20wqT">state propaganda</a> as a "callous tyrant" who "persecuted his own people while sending countless soldiers to their deaths in pointless conflicts". Despite being viewed more positively in recent years, the majority view among western historians is that Nicholas was a well-intentioned yet poor ruler who proved incapable of handling the challenges facing his nation. The <a href="/facts/Russian_Orthodox_Church_Outside_Russia/aboB9YtW">Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia</a>, based in <a href="/facts/New_York_City/YlyvFmVC">New York City</a>, recognised Nicholas, his wife, and their children as martyrs in 1981. Their gravesite was discovered in 1979 but not acknowledged until 1989. After the fall of the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>, the remains of the imperial family were exhumed, identified, and re-interred with an elaborate state and church ceremony in St. Petersburg on 17 July 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths. They were <a href="/facts/Canonization_of_the_Romanovs/5G0V8xsx">canonised</a> in 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church as <a href="/facts/Passion_bearers/KDQNA9AL">passion bearers</a>. In 2008, the <a href="/facts/Prosecutor-General_of_Russia/MLQIJhp9">Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation</a> decided to legally rehabilitate Nicholas, his family, and 52 other close associates of the Imperial family who had been persecuted or murdered, ruling that they were unlawfully killed, challenging the Bolshevik justification for the 1917 revolution.

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Nicholas II