Nicholas II
(Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov;
[d]
18 May
[
O.S.
6 May]
1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last
Emperor of Russia
from 1894 until
his abdication
in March 1917.
He married Princess
Alix of Hesse
, who was the daughter of
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
and the granddaughter of
Queen Victoria
, and they had five children,
Olga
,
Tatiana
,
Maria
,
Anastasia
, and
Alexi
. Alexi suffered from a disease called
haemophilia
, which caused his parents great sadness. After 1905, the royal family became friends with
Grigori Rasputin
, whom they believed could treat Alexi.
[1]
In the first 20 years of his reign, Nicholas tried to make Russia more modern, but these plans were held back by the nobles and the Tsar's weak leadership. He and his chief ministers
Sergei Witte
and
Pyotr Stolypin
encouraged railways, land reform, education, the borrowing of money and friendship with
France
and the
United Kingdom
. In 1905, after Russia lost a
war with Japan
and the killing of protestors on
Bloody Sunday
, there were
large protests against his government
by people who wanted a
parliament
. He created one (the
Duma
), but he would not allow it to have many powers. His reign also saw the
Khodynka Tragedy
,
attacks on the Russian Jews
, anger over the power of Rasputin, and the imprisonments and executions of people who opposed the government.
In 1914, he led Russia into
World War I
, but the war went badly for Russia and caused great hardship. It led to the fall of the monarchy in the 1917
Russian Revolution
. He
abdicated
(quit being Tsar) in March of that year.
[2]
He and his family were held as prisoners under
house arrest
. On July 17, 1918, Nicholas, his wife and their children were killed by a
firing squad
, on the orders of the new
Bolshevik
government. In 1981, the Tsar and his family were made
Saints
by the
Russian Orthodox Church
. In 1990, the bones of the Tsar and his family were found in the woods and given a proper burial in St Petersburg in 1998.
[3]
The historians of the
Soviet Union
often described Nicholas as a
tyrant
. Modern historians see him as a man who tried to do what was right for his country but did not have the skills and was easily led by people who gave him bad advice.
[4]
[5]
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