The last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, from childhood was “betrothed to reign”

Nicholas Romanov - the All-Russian Emperor, Tsar of Poland and Grand Prince of Finland Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor, was born in Tsarskoye Selo on May 18 (6 according to the old style).

The life and reign of Nicholas II are featured in the selection “Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna” of the collection “State Authority” and “Nicholas II (1868–1918)” of the collection “The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Sobor 1613” available on the Presidential Library’s portal. These are not only genuine documents of that era, but also rare materials: fragments of the first newsreels “The Coronation of Nicholas II, May 14 (26) May 1896”, “Tsar and the Tsar’s Family”, “Arrival of the President of France A. Fallières to a meeting with Emperor Nicholas II, Revel, July 28 (August 10), 1908”; the album “Emperor Nicholas II in Pskov: on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of abdication”, “The album of amateur photographs of the life of the tsar’s family and the trips of Nicholas II to the army in Sevastopol, Odessa, Kiev, Mogilev and other cities” and others. These same topics are covered in the article “Birthday Anniversary of the Last Russian Emperor Nicholas II” under the heading “On This Day” on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Professor of History Sergey Oldenburg tells about the upbringing and education of his imperial highness in his fundamental work “The Reign of Emperor Nicholas II” (1939).

Alexander III died in Crimea on November 2 (October 20), 1894. A few hours before his death, the dying emperor ordered his son to sign the Manifesto of accession to the throne.

On November 26 (14), Nicholas II got married to Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, in the baptism of Alexandra Feodorovna. Their coronation took place two years later and was overshadowed by the tragedy - a mass crush on the Khodynsky field during the distribution of gifts.

According to the feuilletonist Ilya Vasilevsky in Nicholas II book (1923), available on the Presidential Library’s portal, “it’s easy to talk about the reign of Nicholas II and it’s difficult to talk about the personality of Nicholas. And this is not only because his reign was in sight, and his personal life is hidden, but also because a person is always a mystery, always mysticism”.

Nicholas II had to rule in a very difficult domestic and foreign political situation. Small and large contradictions and conflicts, diplomatic and military, both in the West and in the East; the growth of the revolutionary movement in the country demanded that the emperor assume full responsibility. According to Oldenburg, “He believed that the responsibility for the fate of Russia rests with Him, that He is responsible for them before the throne of the Most High. <...> This led to the attitude towards the restriction of power - which He considered shifting responsibility to others who were not called up, and to individual ministers who, in His opinion, claimed too much influence in the state”.

The first serious test for the Russian Empire in the 20th century was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The patriotic upsurge of the first year was replaced by despondency, although Nicholas considered the setbacks to be temporary. The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War was the first in half a century.

The development of industry led to an increase in the labor movement and an increase in strikes. The shooting of a working demonstration in St. Petersburg on Bloody Sunday on January 22 (9), 1905 marked the beginning of the first Russian revolution. The blame for what happened the opposition laid on Emperor Nicholas.

In August 1905, the State Duma was established, which could not prevent an all-Russian political strike, and on October 17 (4) the emperor signed a manifesto that granted the people democratic freedoms, and the strikes began to subside.

The turning point in the fate of the Russian Empire and Nicholas II was the First World War. In August 1915, the emperor took the post of commander-in-chief instead of his uncle Nikolai Nikolaevich. “Having replaced his uncle, Nicholas wrote to his wife: “A new blank page begins, and what will be written on it is one god almighty knows”, - said the bibliographer, literary historian Vladimir Semennikov in the book “The Politics of the Romanovs on the Eve of the Revolution” (1926). 

The aggravation of internal problems in the country, huge sacrifices, devastation, famine, and mass protests against the authorities led to the fact that on March 15 (2), 1917, in Pskov, Nicholas II signed the abdication, handed his crown to his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich, who did not accept it.

In March 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, Nicholas and Alexander were arrested, and in August, together with their closest associates, were exiled to Tobolsk. In May of the following year, they were transferred to Yekaterinburg. The Presidium of the Yekaterinburg Regional Council of the Workers' and Peasants' Government decided to shoot Nikolai Romanov and by telegram requested sanction from the Chairman of the People’s Commissar Vladimir Lenin and the Chairman of the CEC Yakov Sverdlov.

On the night of July 16 (3) to July 17 (4), 1918, in the basement of Ipatiev’s house, Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, five of their children and several close ones without trial were shot. Aссording to Vasilevsky, “the Kolchak government is conducting a detailed “investigation of the nightmarish atrocity”. According to the Yekaterinburg Red Army soldier Anatoly Yakimov, in his statement to the investigator on especially important cases, “there were 13 of them all, the 13th was a doctor”. “They had to be shot and finished with butts, pinned with bayonets”.

After years of research on the remains discovered near Yekaterinburg in 1997, a solemn burial was made in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In 2000, Nicholas II and his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.