Nicholas II of Russia


Nicholas II, Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov, Russian: Nikolai II (6 May 1868
(O.S.) = 18 May 1868 (N.S.) - 4 July 1918 (O.S.) = 17 July 1918 (N.S.)) was
the last reigning Emperor of Russia and of the Romanov Dynasty. He ruled
from November 1, 1894 until his abdication on March 15, 1917, and was killed
with his family in 1918. Though the title of Tsar was officially abolished in
1721 by Peter the Great, the title Tsar (occasionally spelled czar) was
used right down until the abolition of the monarchy.

The son of Russian Tsar Alexander III and Empress Marie Romanova (born
Princess Dagmar of Denmark), he was the grandson of Christian IX of Denmark
through his mother, and of Tsar Alexander II through his father.

Married in 1894 to Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt (henceforth Empress
Alexandra Romanova), a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, he was father to
Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria (or Marie), Anastasia, and Tsarevich
Alexei.

Nicholas assumed the throne in 1894, on the death of his father. He had not
been well prepared to rule, his father having been more concerned about
finding him a good wife than in involving him in the details of state. His
father also died at a fairly young age, leaving Nicholas unprepared for his
future tasks. His engagement to Princess Alix only slightly preceded his
father's death, and his wedding came very shortly after the last ceremony of
his father's funeral. He then faced the task of being autocrat of Russia in
a time of major turmoil - a turmoil which would continue well beyond his death.

He relied heavily on the advice of his wife's first cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm -
advice which was not so much in his own best interest as in that of "cousin
Willy", who hoped in particular to prevent closer relations between Russia
and Britain. An ill-conceived war with Japan (1904-1905) cost Russia dearly,
but fear of a wider conflagration contributed ironically to the very
Anglo-Russian Entente which Wilhelm feared.

In addition to a tumultuous international situation, Nicholas also faced
deep domestic difficulties. His grandfather, Tsar Alexander II, had been
assassinated by a bomb set by revolutionaries, and voices of change were
growing louder, ranging from those who would democratize the existing system
to those who sought its complete overthrow. As a child, his entire family
survived an assassination attempt by a bomb on a train. Defeat by Japan
emboldened the regime's internal opponents, unleashing the Russian
Revolution of 1905 during which strikes and local uprisings forced Nicholas
to concede an indirectly-elected national assembly or Duma on October 30.

Further complicating domestic matters was the matter of 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,
which, at that time was virtually untreatable and usually led to untimely
death. With the fragility the autocracy was experiencing at this time,
Nicholas and Alexandra chose to not divulge Alexei's condition to anyone
outside the royal household.

In desperation, Alexandra sought help from a wandering mystic known as
Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin seemed to be able to help when Alexei was
suffering from internal bleeding, and Alexandra became increasingly
dependent on Rasputin and his advice (which she accepted as coming directly
from God through him).

The outbreak of war with Germany on August 1, 1914, found Russia grossly
unprepared, and an early advance ended in staggering Russian losses.
Nicholas felt it his duty to lead his army directly, assuming the role of
commander-in-chief (September 1915) following the loss of the Russian-ruled
part of Poland. His efforts to oversee the operations of the war left
domestic issues essentially in the hands of Alexandra. But Nicholas did not
understand (since he had little input from the common people) how suspicious
the common people were of his wife, both because she was German by birth and
because of her affiliation with Rasputin, who was widely seen as a lecherous
charlatan and a harmful influence on state policy. Rasputin's death at the
hands of a group of nobles (December 1916) removed "our friend" from the
court, but came too late to restore the dynasty's fortunes.

Mounting national hardship and the army's failure to maintain the temporary
military success of June 1916 led to renewed strikes and riots in the
following winter. After the "February Revolution" of March 1917 (February in
the existing Russian calendar) Nicholas abdicated in his own name and that
of his too ill to rule son Alexei in favor of Nicholas' brother, Michael II,
who abdicated after a matter of hours, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.

Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children remained in the royal residence
The Alexander Palace, with decreasing staff until they were moved to
Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917, an effort by the struggling Kerensky
government to keep them safer than was possible in Tsarskoe Selo.
They remained there until after the Bolshevik Revolution in November
1917 (the "October Revolution"), but were moved to Soviet-controlled
Ekaterinburg. They were killed in the basement of the Ipatiev House
where they had been imprisoned in on the night of July 16 (or 17),
1918 by a band of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky.

For a long time, the bodies were 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 that way on the night of July 16/17. But
Yurovsky , upon hearing the following morning that stories were abuzz in
Ekaterinburg about the disposal site , went back to remove the bodies and
conceal them elsewhere. He has initially intended to bury the bodies down
another mineshaft some miles away, but when the vehicle carrying the bodies
broke down on the way there, he made new arrangements. With two exceptions,
the bodies were buried in a sealed and concealed pit on a portion of a
since-abandoned cart track 12 miles north of Ekaterinburg called Koptyaki
Road.

In the early 1990s, the bodies were located, exhumed and formally
identified, following the fall of the Soviet Union. A secret confession by
Yurovsky, which came to light in the late 1970s, but did not become public
knowledge until the 1990s, helped this to happen. DNA analysis was a key
means of identifying them. A single blood sample from Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh was used to identify Alexandra and her daughters through their
mitrochondial genes. Another method for identification was a controversially
untested super-imposition of photos over skulls. The Russian Orthodox
Churches in Russia and Abroad strongly contest the claim that the bodies
were those of the Imperial Family.

There were two bodies missing. These were Alexei and one of the daughters -
Tatiana, Maria or Anastasia. According to Yurovsky's account, the bodies of
Alexei and one of the daughters, mistaken by Yurovsky's band for Alexandra,
were burnt near the burial site and their ashes scattered and concealed.

Following a long series of bureaucratic and political delays, the remains of
the family were reinterred in the Romanov family crypt in 1998 on the 80th
anniversary of their murder. However, controversy over the remains continues
to grow.