Coronation Despite a visit to the United Kingdom in 1893, where he observed the
House of Commons in debate and was seemingly impressed by the machinery of
constitutional monarchy, Nicholas turned his back on any notion of giving away any power to elected representatives in Russia. Shortly after he came to the
throne, a deputation of peasants and workers from various towns' local assemblies (
zemstvos) came to the Winter Palace proposing court reforms, such as the adoption of a constitutional monarchy, and reform that would improve the political and economic life of the peasantry, in the
Tver Address. Although the addresses they had sent in beforehand were couched in mild and loyal terms, Nicholas was angry and ignored advice from an Imperial Family Council by saying to them: On 26 May 1896, Nicholas's formal
coronation as Tsar was held in
Uspensky Cathedral located within the
Kremlin. The event was of gigantic proportions, and people from all over Russia arrived to witness the coronation of the new emperor. At the coronation, lieutenant
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a future
president of Finland, was one of the four officers escorting the new emperor.
Brown trout from Finland was served for the guests at the coronation. Nicholas II announced already at the start of his reign that he would use the Russian title of Tsar instead of the western title of Emperor. In a celebration on 30 May 1896, a large festival with food, free beer and souvenir cups was held in
Khodynka Field outside Moscow. Khodynka was chosen as the location as it was the only place near Moscow large enough to hold all of the Moscow citizens. Khodynka was primarily used as a military training ground and the field was uneven with trenches. Before the food and drink was handed out, rumours spread that there would not be enough for everyone. As a result, the crowd rushed to get their share and individuals were tripped and trampled upon, suffocating in the dirt of the field. Of the approximate 100,000 in attendance, it is estimated that 1,389 individuals died and roughly 1,300 were injured. The
Khodynka Tragedy was seen as an ill omen and Nicholas found gaining popular trust difficult from the beginning of his reign. The French ambassador's gala was planned for that night. The Tsar wanted to stay in his chambers and pray for the lives lost, but his uncles believed that his absence at the ball would strain relations with France, particularly the 1894
Franco-Russian Alliance. Thus Nicholas attended the party; as a result the mourning populace saw Nicholas as frivolous and uncaring. During the autumn after the coronation, Nicholas and Alexandra made a tour of Europe. After making visits to the emperor and empress of
Austria-Hungary, the Kaiser of Germany, and Nicholas's Danish grandparents and relatives, Nicholas and Alexandra took possession of their new yacht, the
Standart, which had been built in Denmark. From there, they made a journey to Scotland to spend some time with Queen Victoria at
Balmoral Castle. While Alexandra enjoyed her reunion with her grandmother, Nicholas complained in a letter to his mother about being forced to go shooting with his uncle, the Prince of Wales, in bad weather, and was suffering from a bad toothache.
Start of reign When Nicholas II ascended to the throne he had very little experience of governing and he trusted the experience and diplomatic abilities of his mother, the widowed empress Maria Feodorovna, for the first 10 years. Nicholas's wife was also strong-willed, which is thought to have resulted from the fact that Nicholas sought to compensate his own lack of a strong will by governing autocratically. Nicholas was also wary of his own ministers, but was himself unable to govern properly. According to
Simon Sebag Montefiore Nicholas spent the first 10 years of his reign listening to his uncles, especially the Grand Duke and Admiral General
Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov, whom Nicholas's second cousin, the Grand Duke and naval officer
Alexander Mikhailovich would have wanted to fire. Right from the start of his reign, Nicholas showed an interest for humanistic ideals. He attended the first
Hague Conference in 1893. Because of his poor knowledge of people, his preference of an isolated family life and his weak authority he soon fell into the hands of his reactionary surroundings. The only idea he steadfastly held on was the principle of an autocratic ruler. Nicholas was a weak emperor. He did better as a father and husband than a ruler of a gigantic, restless realm. He was of average ability and indecisive character, but also modest and frugal. Like his father Alexander III he was very old-fashioned and sought to Russificate everyhing that had been previously westernised, including preferring to use the title of tsar instead of emperor as he thought it sounded more Russian. Nicholas allowed his wife to control him in matters of government, such as choices of people. Because of this, renovations often failed because of one single thing: any renovation would have been contrary to the interests of their children. Especially the crown prince Alexei was important in this regard, and his future interests were not to be endangered. The first years of Nicholas's reign saw little more than continuation and development of the policy pursued by Alexander III. Nicholas allotted money for the
All-Russia exhibition of 1896. In 1897 restoration of the
gold standard by Sergei Witte, Minister of Finance, completed the series of financial reforms, initiated fifteen years earlier. By 1902 the Trans-Siberian Railway was nearing completion; this helped the Russians trade in the Far East but the railway still required huge amounts of work. During the first ten years of Nicholas II's reign, Russia saw a societal and economic transform, a change from an agrarian society to an industrial one, whose seeds had already been sown during the reign of Nicholas's father Alexander III. During the inspection period from 1880 to 1910 economic growth in Russia was over nine percent per year on average. The old-fashioned legislature, the unsolved question of land ownership after
serfdom had been abolished in 1861 and concentration of economic growth in wealthy metropolitan areas caused conflicts among the growing working class, which the
Socialist Revolutionary Party and the
communists used as a vessel of growth.
Internal politics , in 1913. It was one of his favorite sports, shared with his children. In addition to Rasputin, Nicholas also had other irresponsible favourites, often men of questionable authenticity, who gave him a twisted image of Russian life, but which was more desolate for him than that described in official reports. He did not trust his ministers, primarily because he felt they were intelligently superior to him and feared they might try to usurp his sovereign rights. His view of his role as an authority was naively simple: he had received his authority from God, to whom alone he was responsible, and his holy duty was to keep his absolute power intact. He lacked the necessary strength of will for one with such a high view of his duty. In doing his duty Nicholas had to undergo a constant battle against himself, suffocating his natural indecisiveness and assuming the mask of confident decisiveness. His devotion to the autocratic dogma was an insufficient replacement for constructive politics which alone would have lengthened his imperial reign. File:Russia railroads by year.jpg|
History of rail transport in Russia: Km of rail roads built each year in russian territory, from 1837 to 1989. Nicholas II's reign witnessed the most intense period of rail building. File:Russian and US equities 1865 to 1917.jpg|
Stock market in Russia: Indexes of russian and US
equities (1865 - 1917). Nicholas II's reign saw the highest indexes reached by russian equities.
Ecclesiastical affairs Nicholas always believed God chose him to be the tsar and therefore the decisions of the tsar reflected the will of God and could not be disputed. He was convinced that the simple people of Russia understood this and loved him, as demonstrated by the display of affection he perceived when he made public appearances. His strong religious beliefs in his case made for a very stubborn ruler who rejected constitutional limitations on his power. It put the tsar at variance with the emerging political consensus among the Russian elite. It was further belied by the subordinate position of the Church in the bureaucracy. The result was a new distrust between the tsar and the church hierarchy and between those hierarchs and the people. Thereby the tsar's base of support was conflicted. In 1903, Nicholas threw himself into an ecclesiastical crisis regarding the
canonisation of
Seraphim of Sarov. The previous year, it had been suggested that if he were canonised, the imperial couple would beget a son and heir to throne. While Alexandra demanded in July 1902 that Seraphim be canonised in less than a week, Nicholas demanded that he be canonised within a year. Despite a public outcry, the Church bowed to the intense imperial pressure, declaring Seraphim worthy of canonisation in January 1903. That summer, the imperial family travelled to
Sarov for the canonisation.
Initiatives in foreign affairs According to his biographer: : His tolerance if not preference for charlatans and adventurers extended to grave matters of external policy, and his vacillating conduct and erratic decisions aroused misgivings and occasional alarm among his more conventional advisers. The
foreign ministry itself was not a bastion of diplomatic expertise. Patronage and "connections" were the keys to appointment and promotion. Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria paid a state visit in April 1897 that was a success. It produced a "gentlemen's agreement" to keep the status quo in the Balkans, and a somewhat similar commitment became applicable to
Constantinople and the Straits. The result was years of peace that allowed for rapid economic growth. attended by Nicholas II and Alexandra Nicholas followed the policies of his father, strengthening the Franco-Russian Alliance and pursuing a policy of general European pacification, which culminated in the famous
Hague peace conference. This conference, suggested and promoted by Nicholas II, was convened with the view of terminating the
arms race, and setting up machinery for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The results of the conference were less than expected due to the mutual distrust existing between great powers. Nevertheless, the Hague conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war. Nicholas II became the hero of the dedicated disciples of peace. In 1901 he and the Russian diplomat
Friedrich Martens were nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize for the initiative to convene the Hague Peace Conference and contributing to its implementation. However historian Dan L. Morrill states that "most scholars" agree that the invitation was "conceived in fear, brought forth in deceit, and swaddled in humanitarian ideals...Not from humanitarianism, not from love for mankind." Nicholas aimed to strengthen the
Franco-Russian Alliance and proposed the unsuccessful
Hague Convention of 1899 to promote disarmament and peacefully solve international disputes.
Russo-Japanese War was annihilated by the Japanese at the
Battle of Tsushima. A clash between Russia and the
Empire of Japan was almost inevitable by the turn of the 20th century. Russia had expanded in the Far East, and the growth of its settlement and territorial ambitions, as its southward path to the
Balkans was frustrated, conflicted with Japan's own territorial ambitions on the Asian mainland. Nicholas pursued an aggressive foreign policy with regards to
Manchuria and
Korea, and strongly supported the scheme for timber concessions in these areas as developed by the
Bezobrazov group. Before the war in 1901, Nicholas told his brother-in-law Prince
Henry of Prussia "I do not want to seize Korea but under no circumstances can I allow Japan to become firmly established there. That will be a casus belli." War began in February 1904 with a preemptive Japanese attack on the Russian
Pacific Fleet in
Port Arthur, prior to a formal declaration of war. With the Russian Far East fleet trapped at Port Arthur, the only other Russian Fleet was the
Baltic Fleet; it was half a world away, but the decision was made to send the fleet on a nine-month voyage to the east. The United Kingdom would not allow the Russian navy to use the
Suez Canal, due to
its alliance with the Empire of Japan, and due to the
Dogger Bank incident where the Baltic Fleet mistakenly fired on British fishing boats in the
North Sea. The Baltic Fleet traversed the world to lift the blockade on Port Arthur, but after many misadventures on the way, was nearly annihilated by the Japanese in the
Battle of Tsushima. On land the
Imperial Russian Army experienced logistical problems. While commands and supplies came from
St. Petersburg, combat took place in east Asian ports with only the Trans-Siberian Railway for transport of supplies as well as troops both ways. The rail line between St. Petersburg and Port Arthur was single-track, with no track around
Lake Baikal, allowing only gradual build-up of the forces on the front.
Besieged Port Arthur fell to the Japanese, after nine months of resistance. As Russia faced imminent defeat by the Japanese, the call for peace grew. Nicholas's mother, as well as his cousin Emperor Wilhelm II, urged Nicholas to negotiate for peace. Despite the efforts, Nicholas remained evasive, sending a telegram to the Kaiser on 10 October that it was his intent to keep on fighting until the Japanese were driven from Manchuria. It was not until 27–28 May 1905 and the annihilation of the Russian fleet by the Japanese, that Nicholas finally decided to sue for peace. Nicholas II accepted American mediation, appointing Sergei Witte chief plenipotentiary for the peace talks. The war was ended by the signing of the
Treaty of Portsmouth.
Tsar's confidence in victory Nicholas's stance on the war was so at variance with the obvious facts that many observers were baffled. He saw the war as an easy God-given victory that would raise Russian morale and patriotism. He ignored the financial repercussions of a long-distance war. Rotem Kowner argues that during his visit to Japan in 1891, where Nicholas was
attacked by a Japanese policeman, he regarded the Japanese as small of stature, feminine, weak, and inferior. He ignored reports of the prowess of Japanese soldiers in the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and reports on the capabilities of the
Imperial Japanese Navy, as well as negative reports on the lack of readiness of Russian forces. Before the Japanese attack on Port Arthur, Nicholas held firm to the belief that there would be no war. Despite the onset of the war and the many defeats Russia suffered, Nicholas still believed in, and expected, a final victory, maintaining an image of the racial inferiority and military weakness of the Japanese. Throughout the war, the tsar demonstrated total confidence in Russia's ultimate triumph. His advisors never gave him a clear picture of Russia's weaknesses. Despite the continuous military disasters Nicholas believed victory was near at hand. Losing his navy at Tsushima finally persuaded him to agree to peace negotiations. Even then he insisted on the option of reopening hostilities if peace conditions were unfavorable. He forbade his chief negotiator Count Witte to agree to either indemnity payments or loss of territory. Nicholas remained adamantly opposed to any concessions. Peace was made, but Witte did so by disobeying the tsar and ceding southern
Sakhalin to Japan. These publications served to fuel the
Kishinev pogrom (rioting). The government of Nicholas II formally condemned the rioting and dismissed the regional governor, with the perpetrators arrested and punished by the court. Leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church also condemned antisemitic pogroms. Appeals to the faithful condemning the pogroms were read publicly in all churches of Russia. In private Nicholas expressed his admiration for the mobs, viewing antisemitism as a useful tool for unifying the people behind the government; however in 1911, following the assassination of
Pyotr Stolypin by the Jewish revolutionary
Dmitry Bogrov, he approved of government efforts to prevent antisemitic pogroms.
Russification of Finland In
Finland, Nicholas had become associated with deeply unpopular
Russification measures. These began with the
February Manifesto proclaimed by Nicholas II in 1899, which restricted Finland's
autonomy and instigated a period of censorship and political repression.
A petition of protest signed by more than 500,000 Finns was collected against the manifesto and delivered to St. Petersburg by a delegation of 500 people, but they were not received by Nicholas. Russification measures were reintroduced in 1908 after a temporary suspension in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution, and Nicholas received an icy reception when he made his only visit to
Helsinki on 10 March 1915.
Bloody Sunday (1905) . On an incident interpreted as an assassination attempt on the Emperor occurred. A few days prior to what would become known as Bloody Sunday (9 (22) January 1905), priest and labor leader
Georgy Gapon informed the government of a forthcoming procession to the
Winter Palace to hand a workers'
petition to the tsar. On Saturday, 8 (21) January, the ministers convened to consider the situation. There was never any thought that the tsar, who had left the capital for Tsarskoye Selo on the advice of the ministers, would actually meet Gapon; the suggestion that some other member of the imperial family receive the petition was rejected. Finally informed by the Prefect of Police that he lacked the men to pluck Gapon from among his followers and place him under arrest, the newly appointed Minister of the Interior, Prince
Sviatopolk-Mirsky, and his colleagues decided to bring additional troops to reinforce the city. That evening Nicholas wrote in his diary, "Troops have been brought from the outskirts to reinforce the garrison. Up to now the workers have been calm. Their number is estimated at 120,000. At the head of their union is a kind of socialist priest named Gapon. Mirsky came this evening to present his report on the measures taken." On Sunday, 9 (22) January 1905, Gapon began his march. Locking arms, the workers
marched peacefully through the streets. Some carried religious icons and banners, as well as national flags and portraits of the tsar. As they walked, they sang hymns and
God Save The Tsar. At 2pm all of the converging processions were scheduled to arrive at the Winter Palace. There was no single confrontation with the troops. Throughout the city, at bridges on strategic boulevards, the marchers found their way blocked by lines of infantry, backed by
Cossacks and hussars; and the soldiers opened fire on the crowd. The official number of victims was 92 dead and several hundred wounded. Gapon vanished and the other leaders of the march were seized. Expelled from the capital, they circulated through the empire, increasing the casualties. As bullets riddled their icons, their banners and their portraits of Nicholas, the people shrieked, "The Tsar will not help us!" Outside Russia, the future British Labour Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald attacked the Tsar, calling him a "blood-stained creature and a common murderer". In hopes of cutting the rebellion short, many demonstrators were shot on
Bloody Sunday (1905) as they tried to march to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov was ordered to take drastic measures to stop the revolutionary activity. Grand Duke
Sergei was killed in February by a revolutionary's bomb in Moscow as he left the Kremlin. On 3 March the tsar condemned the revolutionaries. Meanwhile, Witte recommended that a manifesto be issued. Schemes of reform would be elaborated by
Ivan Goremykin and a committee consisting of elected representatives of the
zemstvos and municipal councils under the presidency of Witte. In June the battleship
Potemkin, part of the
Black Sea Fleet,
mutinied. Around August/September, after his diplomatic success on ending the
Russo-Japanese War, Witte wrote to the Tsar stressing the urgent need for political reforms at home. The Tsar remained quite impassive and indulgent; he spent most of that autumn hunting. With the defeat of Russia by a non-Western power, the prestige and authority of the autocratic regime fell significantly. Tsar Nicholas II, taken by surprise by the events, reacted with anger and bewilderment. He wrote to his mother after months of disorder: In October a railway strike developed into a
general strike which paralysed the country. In a city without electricity, Witte told Nicholas II "that the country was at the verge of a cataclysmic revolution". The Tsar accepted the draft, hurriedly outlined by Aleksei D.
Obolensky. The
Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias was forced to sign the
October Manifesto agreeing to the establishment of the
Imperial Duma, and to give up part of his unlimited autocracy. The freedom of religion clause outraged the Church because it allowed people to switch to evangelical Protestantism, which they denounced as heresy. For the next six months, Witte was the
prime minister. According to
Harold Williams: "That government was almost paralyzed from the beginning." On 8 November 1905 the tsar appointed
Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov Master of the Palace (without consulting Witte), and had daily contact with the emperor; his influence at court was paramount. On 14 November,
Princess Milica of Montenegro presented
Grigori Rasputin to Tsar Nicholas and his wife (who by then had a hemophiliac son) at
Peterhof Palace.
Relationship with the Duma , 10 May 1906 :
1 ruble Nikolai II_Romanov Dynasty – 1913 – On the obverse of the coin features two rulers: left Emperor Nikolas II in military uniform of the life guards of the 4th infantry regiment of the Imperial family, right
Michael I in Royal robes and
Monomakh's Cap. Portraits made in a circular frame around of a Greek ornament. File:Nicholas II Coin.jpg|thumb|One ruble silver coin of Nicholas II, dated 1898, with the Imperial coat-of-arms on the reverse. The Russian inscription reads:
B[ozheyu] M[ilostyu] Nikolay Imperator i Samoderzhets Vse[ya] Ross[ii].[iyskiy].The English translation is: "By the grace of God, Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias". Under pressure from the attempted
1905 Russian Revolution, on 5 August of that year Nicholas II issued a manifesto about the convocation of the
State Duma, known as the
Bulygin Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the October Manifesto, the Tsar pledged to introduce basic civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. He was determined, however, to preserve his autocracy even in the context of reform. This was signalled in the text of the
1906 constitution. He was described as the supreme autocrat, and retained sweeping executive powers, also in church affairs. His cabinet ministers were not allowed to interfere with nor assist one another; they were responsible only to him. Nicholas's relations with the Duma were poor. The First Duma, with a majority of
Kadets, almost immediately came into conflict with him. Scarcely had the 524 members sat down at the
Tauride Palace when they formulated an 'Address to the Throne'. It demanded
universal suffrage, radical land reform, the release of all
political prisoners and the dismissal of ministers appointed by the Tsar in favour of ministers acceptable to the Duma. Grand Duchess Olga, Nicholas's sister, later wrote: Minister of the Court Count
Vladimir Frederiks commented, "The Deputies, they give one the impression of a gang of criminals who are only waiting for the signal to throw themselves upon the ministers and cut their throats. I will never again set foot among those people." The Dowager Empress noticed "incomprehensible hatred." Although Nicholas initially had a good relationship with his prime minister, Sergei Witte, Alexandra distrusted him as he had instigated an investigation of Grigori Rasputin and, as the political situation deteriorated, Nicholas dissolved the Duma. The Duma was populated with
radicals, many of whom wished to push through legislation that would abolish private property ownership, among other things. Witte, unable to grasp the seemingly insurmountable problems of reforming Russia and the monarchy, wrote to Nicholas on 14 April 1906 resigning his office (however, other accounts have said that Witte was forced to resign by the emperor). Nicholas was not ungracious to Witte and an Imperial
Rescript was published on 22 April creating Witte a Knight of the
Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky with diamonds (the last two words were written in the emperor's own hand, followed by "I remain unalterably well-disposed to you and sincerely grateful, for ever more Nicholas."). A second Duma met for the first time in February 1907. The leftist parties—including the
Social Democrats and the
Socialist Revolutionaries, who had boycotted the First Duma—had won 200 seats in the Second, more than a third of the membership. Again Nicholas waited impatiently to rid himself of the Duma. In two letters to his mother he let his bitterness flow: A little while later he further wrote: delegation during the Tsar's visit to
Kiev in 1911 After the Second Duma resulted in similar problems, the new prime minister
Pyotr Stolypin (whom Witte described as "reactionary") unilaterally dissolved it, and changed the electoral laws to allow for future Dumas to have a more conservative content, and to be dominated by the liberal-conservative
Octobrist Party of
Alexander Guchkov. Stolypin, a skilful politician, had ambitious plans for reform. These included making loans available to the lower classes to enable them to buy land, with the intent of forming a farming class loyal to the crown. Nevertheless, when the Duma remained hostile, Stolypin had no qualms about invoking Article 87 of the
Fundamental Laws, which empowered the tsar to issue 'urgent and extraordinary' emergency decrees 'during the recess of the State Duma'. Stolypin's most famous legislative act, the change in peasant land tenure, was promulgated under Article 87. The third Duma remained an independent body. This time the members proceeded cautiously. Instead of hurling themselves at the government, opposing parties within the Duma worked to develop the body as a whole. In the classic manner of the British Parliament, the Duma reached for power grasping for the national purse strings. The Duma had the right to question ministers behind closed doors as to their proposed expenditures. These sessions, endorsed by Stolypin, were educational for both sides, and, in time, mutual antagonism was replaced by mutual respect. Even the sensitive area of military expenditure, where the October Manifesto clearly had reserved decisions to the throne, a Duma commission began to operate. Composed of aggressive patriots no less anxious than Nicholas to restore the fallen honour of Russian arms, the Duma commission frequently recommended expenditures even larger than those proposed. With the passage of time, Nicholas also began to have confidence in the Duma. "This Duma cannot be reproached with an attempt to seize power and there is no need at all to quarrel with it," he said to Stolypin in 1909. Nevertheless, Stolypin's plans were undercut by conservatives at court. Although the tsar at first supported him, he finally sided with the arch critics. Reactionaries such as Prince
Vladimir Nikolayevich Orlov never tired of telling the tsar that the very existence of the Duma was a blot on the autocracy. Stolypin, they whispered, was a traitor and secret revolutionary who was conniving with the Duma to steal the prerogatives assigned the tsar by God. Witte also engaged in constant intrigue against Stolypin. Although Stolypin had had nothing to do with Witte's fall, Witte blamed him. Stolypin had unwittingly angered the tsaritsa. He had ordered an investigation into Rasputin and presented it to the tsar, who read it but did nothing. Stolypin, on his own authority, ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg. Alexandra protested vehemently but Nicholas refused to overrule his prime minister, who had more influence with the emperor. By the time of Stolypin's assassination in September 1911, Stolypin had grown weary of the burdens of office. For a man who preferred clear decisive action, working with a sovereign who believed in fatalism and mysticism was frustrating. As an example, Nicholas once returned a document unsigned with the note: |upright=.9 Alexandra, believing that Stolypin had severed the bonds that her son depended on for life, hated the prime minister. In March 1911, in a fit of anger stating that he no longer commanded the imperial confidence, Stolypin asked to be relieved of his office. Two years earlier when Stolypin had casually mentioned resigning to Nicholas he was informed: "This is not a question of confidence or lack of it. It is my will. Remember that we live in Russia, not abroad...and therefore I shall not consider the possibility of any resignation." He was assassinated in September 1911. In 1912, a fourth Duma was elected with almost the same membership as the third. "The Duma started too fast. Now it is slower, but better, and more lasting", stated Nicholas to Sir
Bernard Pares. The
First World War developed badly for Russia. By late 1916, Romanov family desperation reached the point that
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, younger brother of Alexander III and the Tsar's only surviving uncle, was deputed to beg Nicholas to grant a constitution and a government responsible to the Duma. Nicholas sternly and adamantly refused, reproaching his uncle for asking him to break his coronation oath to maintain autocratic power for his successors. In the Duma on 2 December 1916,
Vladimir Purishkevich, a fervent patriot, monarchist and war worker, denounced the dark forces which surrounded the throne in a thunderous two-hour speech which was tumultuously applauded. "Revolution threatens," he warned, "and an obscure peasant shall govern Russia no longer!".
Tsarevich Alexei's illness and Rasputin Further complicating domestic matters was the matter of the succession. Alexandra bore Nicholas four daughters, Grand Duchess
Olga in 1895, Grand Duchess
Tatiana in 1897, Grand Duchess
Maria in 1899, and Grand Duchess
Anastasia in 1901, before their son
Alexei was born on 12 August 1904. The young heir was afflicted with
Hemophilia B, a hereditary disease that prevents blood from clotting properly, which at that time was untreatable and usually led to an untimely death. As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra carried the same
gene mutation that afflicted several of the major European royal houses, such as
Prussia and Spain. Hemophilia, therefore, became known as "
the royal disease". Through Alexandra, the disease had passed on to her son. As all of Nicholas and Alexandra's daughters were assassinated with their parents and brother in Yekaterinburg in 1918, it is not known whether any of them inherited the gene as
carriers. Before Rasputin's arrival, the tsarina and the tsar had consulted numerous mystics, charlatans, "holy fools", and miracle workers. The royal behavior was not some odd aberration, but a deliberate retreat from the secular social and economic forces of his time—an act of faith and vote of confidence in a spiritual past. They had set themselves up for the greatest spiritual advisor and manipulator in Russian history. Because of the fragility of the autocracy at this time, Nicholas and Alexandra chose to keep secret Alexei's condition. Even within the household, many were unaware of the exact nature of the tsesarevich's illness. At first Alexandra turned to Russian doctors and medics to treat Alexei; however, their treatments generally failed, and Alexandra increasingly turned to
mystics and holy men (or
starets as they were called in Russian). One of these starets, an illiterate Siberian named Grigori Rasputin, gained amazing success. Rasputin's influence over Empress Alexandra, and consequently the tsar himself, grew even stronger after 1912 when the tsesarevich nearly died from an injury. His bleeding grew steadily worse as doctors despaired, and priests administered the
Last Sacrament. In desperation, Alexandra called upon Rasputin, to which he replied, "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much." The hemorrhage stopped the very next day and the boy began to recover. Alexandra took this as a sign that Rasputin was a
starets and that God was with him; for the rest of her life she would fervently defend him and turn her wrath against anyone who dared to question him.
European affairs '', during King
Edward VII's state visit to Russia in
Reval, 1908 In 1907, to end longstanding controversies over central Asia, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the
Anglo-Russian Convention that resolved most of the problems generated for decades by
The Great Game. The UK had already entered into the
Entente Cordiale with France in 1904, and the Anglo-Russian Convention led to the formation of the
Triple Entente. The following year, in May 1908, Nicholas and Alexandra's shared "Uncle Bertie" and "Aunt Alix", Britain's King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, made a
state visit to Russia, being the first reigning British monarchs to do so. However, they did not set foot on Russian soil. Instead, they stayed aboard their yachts, meeting off the coast of modern-day
Tallinn. The purpose of this three-day meeting was to sign contracts of political and military assistance between the United Kingdom and Russia. With the foreign ministers of both countries present, a contract about changes in Macedonia and the weakening of the Ottoman Empire was signed. This meeting ignited the
Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Later that year, Nicholas was taken off guard by the news that his foreign minister,
Alexander Izvolsky, had entered into a secret agreement with the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, Count
Alois von Aehrenthal, agreeing that, in exchange for Russian naval access to the
Dardanelles and the
Bosporus Strait, Russia would not oppose the Austrian annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, a revision of the 1878
Treaty of Berlin. When Austria-Hungary did annex this territory that October, it precipitated the
Bosnian Crisis. When Russia protested about the annexation, the Austrians threatened to leak secret communications between Izvolsky and Aehrenthal, prompting Nicholas to complain in a letter to Emperor Franz Joseph, about a breach of confidence. In 1909, in the wake of the Anglo-Russian convention, the Russian imperial family made a visit to England, staying on the
Isle of Wight for
Cowes Week. On 5 July 1912 a meeting was held in
Paldiski between Nicholas II and the German emperor Wilhelm II. Wilhelm II was aboard the ship
Hohenzollern II, escorted by the battlecruiser
Moltke. A lunch for fifty people was held at the Paldiski
roadstead on Nicholas II's yacht
Standart, where negotiations about the political situation in Europe were held. These negotiations failed to stop the approaching World War I. In 1913, during the
Balkan Wars, Nicholas personally offered to arbitrate between
Serbia and
Bulgaria. However, the Bulgarians rejected his offer. Also in 1913, Nicholas, albeit without Alexandra, made a visit to Berlin for the wedding of Kaiser Wilhelm II's daughter, Princess
Victoria Louise, to a maternal cousin of Nicholas,
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. Nicholas was also joined by his cousin, King
George V and his wife, Queen
Mary.
Tercentenary In February 1913, Nicholas presided over the
tercentenary celebrations for the Romanov Dynasty. On 21 February, a
Te Deum took place at
Kazan Cathedral, and a state reception at the Winter Palace. In May, Nicholas and the imperial family made a pilgrimage across the empire, retracing the route down the
Volga River that was made by the teenage
Michael Romanov from the
Ipatiev Monastery in
Kostroma to Moscow in 1613 when he finally agreed to become tsar. On the eve of World War I, Russia was the most populous state in Europe. With 175 million inhabitants, it had almost 3 times the population of
Germany, an
army of 1.3 million men, and almost 5 million
reservists. Its industrial growth, on the order of 5% per year between 1860 and 1913, and the vastness of its territory and natural resources made it a strategic giant. The
Russian railway network grew from 50,000 km in 1900 to 75,000 in 1914. Coal production rose from 6 million tonnes in 1890 to 36 million in 1914. Oil production, thanks to the
Baku deposits, was the second largest in the world after the United States. In Germany, Chief of Staff
Moltke predicted that, as a result of Russia's rapid growth,
German military power would be outclassed by that of its adversaries from 1916–1917, while France, strengthened by the
Franco-Russian alliance of 1892, expected the "Russian steamroller" to crush Germany at the first hostile move. However, this power rested on unstable foundations. Russian industrial production, ranked 4th in the world, surpassed that of
France and
Austria-Hungary, but lagged far behind that of the top three countries, the
United States, the
United Kingdom, and
Germany. The development of the army, railroads, and industries was largely dependent on
government loans, notably from France, and on imports of foreign capital and technology. Interest on the debt, the highest in the world, tended to outstrip the trade surplus. In 1914, 90% of the mining sector, 100% of oil, 40% of metallurgy, and 50% of the chemical industry belonged to foreign firms. Despite high tariffs, the Russian industry was not very competitive, and the country had to import most of its machinery, while exports were mainly represented by agricultural products (63% in 1913) and wood (11%).
First World War from the
Winter Palace, 2 August 1914 On 28 June 1914
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb in
Sarajevo, who opposed Austria-Hungary's
annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. War was avoidable, but leaders, diplomats and nineteenth-century alliances created a climate for large-scale conflict. The concept of
Pan-Slavism and shared religion created public sympathy between Russia and
Serbia. Territorial conflict created rivalries between
Germany and France, between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and so alliance networks developed across Europe. The
Triple Entente and
Triple Alliance networks were set before the war. Nicholas wanted neither to abandon Serbia to the ultimatum of Austria-Hungary, nor provoke a general war. In letters exchanged with
Wilhelm of Germany (the "
Willy–Nicky correspondence") the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and attempted to get the other to back down. Nicholas desired that Russia's mobilization be only against Austria-Hungary, in the hopes of preventing war with Germany. On 25 July 1914, at his council of ministers, Nicholas decided to intervene in the Austro-Serbian conflict, a step toward general war. He put the army on "alert" on 25 July. Although this was not general mobilization, it threatened the German and Austro-Hungarian borders and looked like preparation for war. Count Witte told the French ambassador,
Maurice Paléologue that from Russia's point of view the war was madness, Slav solidarity was nonsense and Russia could hope for nothing from the war. On 30 July, Russia ordered general mobilization, but still maintained it would not attack if peace talks began. Germany, reacting to the discovery of partial mobilization ordered on 25 July, announced its pre-mobilization posture. Germany requested Russia demobilize within the next twelve hours. In Saint Petersburg, at 7 pm, with the ultimatum to Russia having expired, the German ambassador met with the Russian foreign minister
Sergey Sazonov, asked if Russia would reconsider, and then delivered the note accepting Russia's war challenge and declaring war on 1 August. Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and its ally France on 3 August. On 6 August, Franz Joseph signed the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Russia. The outbreak of war found Russia grossly unprepared. Russia and her allies placed their faith in
her army, the famous 'Russian steamroller'. Its pre-war regular strength was 1,400,000; mobilization added 3,100,000 reserves and millions more stood ready behind them. In other respects, however, Russia was unprepared. Germany had ten times as much railway track per square mile, and whereas Russian soldiers travelled an average of to reach the front, German soldiers traveled a quarter of that. Russian heavy industry was too small to equip the massive armies the Tsar could raise, and her reserves of munitions were small; while the
Imperial German Army in 1914 was better equipped than any other, the Russians were short on artillery pieces, shells, motorized transports, and even boots. With the
Baltic Sea barred by German U-boats and the Dardanelles by the guns of Germany's ally, the
Ottoman Empire, Russia initially could receive help only via
Archangel, which was frozen in winter, or via
Vladivostok, which was over from the front. By 1915, a railway was built north from
Petrozavodsk to the Kola Gulf and this connection laid the foundation of the ice-free port of
Murmansk. The Russian High Command was weakened by the contempt between
Vladimir Sukhomlinov, the
Minister of War, and incompetent Grand Duke
Nicholas Nikolayevich who commanded the armies in the field. In spite of all this, an immediate attack was ordered against the German province of
East Prussia. The Germans defeated the Russians, and the
Battle of Tannenberg, where a Russian army was annihilated, cast an ominous shadow over Russia's future. Russia had great success against the
Austro-Hungarian and
Ottoman armies, but never succeeded against the German Army. In September 1914, to relieve pressure on France, the Russians were forced to halt a successful offensive against Austria-Hungary in
Galicia to attack German-held Silesia. A war of attrition set in on the
Eastern Front, where the Russians faced the combined forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, and suffered staggering losses. General
Anton Denikin wrote, "The German heavy artillery swept away whole lines of trenches, and their defenders with them...There was nothing with which we could reply. Our regiments, although completely exhausted, were beating off one attack after another by bayonet ... Blood flowed unendingly, the ranks became thinner and thinner...The number of graves multiplied." On 5 August, with the Russian army in retreat,
Warsaw fell. Defeat bred disorder at home. At first, the targets were German, and in June shops, bakeries, factories, private houses and country estates belonging to people with German names were looted and burned. The mobs then turned on the government, declaring the empress should be shut up in a convent, the tsar deposed and Rasputin hanged. Nicholas was not deaf to these discontents. An emergency session of the Duma was summoned and a Special Defense Council established, its members drawn from the Duma and the tsar's ministers. (right) In July 1915, King
Christian X of
Denmark, first cousin of the tsar, sent
Hans Niels Andersen to Tsarskoye Selo with an offer to act as a mediator. He made trips between London, Berlin and
Petrograd and in July saw the Dowager Empress
Maria Feodorovna. Andersen told her they should conclude peace. Nicholas turned down Christian's offer of mediation, as he felt it would be a betrayal for Russia to form a separate peace treaty with the
Central Powers when its allies Britain and France were still fighting. General
Alexei Polivanov replaced Sukhomlinov as
Minister of War, which failed to improve the situation. In the aftermath of the
Great Retreat and loss of the
Kingdom of Poland, Nicholas assumed the role of commander-in-chief after dismissing his cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, in September 1915. This was a mistake, as the tsar became personally associated with continuing losses at the front. He was away at the remote HQ at
Mogilev, far from direct governance of the empire, and when revolution broke out in Petrograd he was unable to halt it. In reality the move was symbolic, since important military decisions were made by his chief of staff, General
Mikhail Alekseyev, and Nicholas did little more than review troops, inspect
field hospitals, and preside over military luncheons. ,
Crimea, May 1916 The Duma was still calling for political reforms, and unrest continued throughout the war. Cut off from public opinion, Nicholas could not see the dynasty was tottering. With Nicholas at the front, domestic issues and control of the capital were left with his wife. However, Alexandra's relationship with Grigori Rasputin, and her German background, discredited the dynasty's authority. Nicholas had been repeatedly warned about the destructive influence of Rasputin but failed to remove him. Rumors and accusations about Alexandra and Rasputin appeared; Alexandra was even accused of harboring treasonous sympathies towards Germany. Anger at Nicholas's failure to act and the damage Rasputin's influence was doing to Russia's war effort and the monarchy led to Rasputin's murder by nobles, led by Prince
Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke
Dmitri Pavlovich, a cousin of the tsar, on Saturday 17 December 1916 (
O.S.) / 30 December 1916 (
N.S.).
Collapse at Mogilev in April 1916 As the government failed to produce supplies, mounting hardship resulted in massive riots and rebellions. With Nicholas away at the front from 1915 through 1916, authority appeared to collapse and the capital was left in the hands of strikers and mutineering soldiers. Despite efforts by the British Ambassador Sir
George Buchanan to warn the Tsar that he should grant constitutional reforms to fend off revolution, Nicholas continued to bury himself away at the Staff HQ (
Stavka) away at Mogilev, leaving his capital and court open to intrigues and insurrection. Ideologically the tsar's greatest support came from the right-wing monarchists, who had recently gained strength. However they were increasingly alienated by the tsar's support of Stolypin's Westernizing reforms taken early in the Revolution of 1905 and especially by the political power the tsar had bestowed on Rasputin. By early 1917, Russia was on the verge of total collapse of morale. An estimated 1.7 million Russian soldiers
were killed in World War I. The sense of failure and imminent disaster was everywhere. The army had taken 15 million men from the farms and food prices had soared. An egg cost four times what it had in 1914, butter five times as much. The severe winter dealt the railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, a crippling blow. Russia entered the war with 20,000 locomotives; by 1917, 9,000 were in service, while the number of serviceable railway wagons had dwindled from half a million to 170,000. In February 1917, 1,200 locomotives burst their boilers and nearly 60,000 wagons were immobilized. In Petrograd, supplies of flour and fuel had all but disappeared. War-time
prohibition of alcohol was enacted by Nicholas to boost patriotism and productivity, but instead damaged the funding of the war, due to the treasury now being deprived of alcohol taxes. On 23 February 1917 in Petrograd, a combination of very severe cold weather and acute food shortages caused people to break into shops and bakeries to get bread and other necessities. In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds chanted "Down with the German woman! Down with
Protopopov! Down with the war! Down with the Tsar!" Police shot at the populace which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime, with the bulk of the tsar's loyalists away fighting World War I. In contrast, the soldiers in Petrograd were angry, full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace. The tsar's Cabinet begged Nicholas to return to the capital and offered to resign completely. The tsar, 800 kilometres (500 mi) away, misinformed by the Minister of the Interior Alexander Protopopov that the situation was under control, ordered that firm steps be taken against the demonstrators. For this task, the Petrograd garrison was quite unsuitable. The cream of the old regular army had been destroyed in Poland and Galicia. In Petrograd, 170,000 recruits, country boys or older men from the working-class suburbs of the capital itself, were available under the command of officers at the front and cadets not yet graduated from the military academies. The units in the capital, although many bore the names of famous
Imperial Guard regiments, were in reality rear or reserve battalions of these regiments, the regular units being away at the front. Many units, lacking both officers and rifles, had never undergone formal training. General
Khabalov attempted to put the tsar's instructions into effect on the morning of Sunday, 11 March 1917. Despite huge posters ordering people to keep off the streets, vast crowds gathered and were only dispersed after some 200 had been shot dead, though a company of the
Volhynian Regiment fired into the air rather than into the mob, and a company of the
Pavlovsky Life Guards shot the officer who gave the command to open fire. Nicholas, informed of the situation by
Mikhail Rodzianko, ordered reinforcements to the capital and suspended the Duma. However, it was too late. On 12 March, the Volhynian Regiment mutinied and was quickly followed by the
Semenovsky, the
Izmailovsky, the
Lithuanian and even the legendary
Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, the oldest and staunchest regiment founded by
Peter the Great. The arsenal was pillaged and the Ministry of the Interior, Military Government building, police headquarters, Law Courts and a score of police buildings were set on fire. By noon, the
Peter and Paul Fortress, with its heavy artillery, was in the hands of the insurgents. By nightfall, 60,000 soldiers had joined the revolution. Order broke down and Prime Minister
Nikolai Golitsyn resigned; members of the Duma and the
Soviet formed a
Provisional Government to try to restore order. They issued a demand that Nicholas must abdicate. Faced with this demand, which was echoed by his generals, deprived of loyal troops, with his family firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government, and fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Nicholas had little choice but to submit. ==Revolution==