The reign of Nicholas II (briefly)

The reign of Nicholas II (briefly)

Nicholas II, the son of Alexander III, was the last emperor of the Russian Empire and ruled from May 18, 1868 to July 17, 1918. He was able to get an excellent education, was fluent in several foreign languages, and was also able to rise to the rank of colonel of the Russian army, field marshal and admiral of the fleet of the British army. Nicholas had to ascend the throne after the sudden death of his father. At that time, the young man was twenty-six years old.

From childhood, Nicholas was prepared for the role of the future ruler. In 1894, a month after the death of his father, he married the German princess Alice of Hesse, later known as Alexandra Fedorovna. Two years later, the official coronation took place, which took place in mourning, because because of the huge crush, many people who wanted to personally see the new emperor died.

The emperor had five children (four daughters and a son). Despite the fact that the doctors discovered that Alexei (son) had hemophilia, he, like his father, was being prepared to rule the Russian Empire.

During the reign of Nicholas II, Russia was in the stage of economic ascension, but the political situation inside the country was aggravated every day. It was the failure of the emperor in the role of ruler that led to internal unrest. As a result, after the dispersal of the workers rally on January 9, 1905 (this event is also known as "Bloody Sunday"), the state flared up with revolutionary sentiments. The revolution of 1905-1907 took place. The result of these events is the nickname among the people of the tsar, whom people christened Nicholas "Bloody".

In 1914, the First World War began, which negatively affected the state of Russia and exacerbated the already unstable political situation. The unsuccessful military operations of Nicholas II led to the fact that in 1917 an uprising began in Petrograd, the result of which was the tsar's abdication from the throne.

In the early spring of 1917, the entire royal family was arrested and later sent into exile. The entire family was shot on the night of July 16-17.

Here are the main reforms during the reign of Nicholas II:

· Administrative: the State Duma was formed, and the people received civil rights.

· Military reform carried out after the defeat in the war with Japan.

· Agrarian reform: land was assigned to private peasants, not to communities.

Dedicated to a century of revolutionary events.

As many myths have been created about a single Russian tsar as about the latter, Nicholas II. What really happened? Was the sovereign a lethargic and weak-willed man? Was he cruel? Could he have won the First World War? And how much truth is there in black fabrications about this ruler? ..

Gleb Eliseev, Candidate of Historical Sciences.

Black legend of Nicholas II

Meeting in Petrograd, 1917

Already 17 years have passed since the canonization of the last emperor and his family, but you still encounter an amazing paradox - many, even completely Orthodox, people dispute the validity of the canonization of Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich to the canon of saints.

No one has any protests or doubts about the legitimacy of the canonization of the son and daughters of the last Russian emperor. I have not heard any objections to the canonization of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Even at the Council of Bishops in 2000, when it came to the canonization of the Royal Martyrs, a dissenting opinion was expressed only regarding the sovereign himself. One of the bishops said that the emperor did not deserve to be glorified, because "he is a state traitor ... he, one might say, sanctioned the collapse of the country."

And it is clear that in such a situation the spears are not broken at all about the martyrdom or the Christian life of Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich. Neither one nor the other raises doubts even among the most rabid denier of the monarchy. His feat as a passion-bearer is beyond doubt.

The point is different - in a latent, subconscious resentment: “Why did the sovereign admit that there was a revolution? Why didn't you save Russia? " Or, as AI Solzhenitsyn remarked soberly in his article “Reflections on the February Revolution”: “Weak tsar, he betrayed us. All of us - for everything that follows. "

The myth of the weak king, who allegedly voluntarily surrendered his kingdom, obscures his martyrdom and obscures the demonic cruelty of his tormentors. But what could the sovereign do in the circumstances, when Russian society, like a herd of Gadarin pigs, was rushing into the abyss for decades?

Studying the history of Nikolaev's reign, one is amazed not at the sovereign's weakness, not at his mistakes, but at how much he managed to do in an atmosphere of whipped up hatred, anger and slander.

We must not forget that the sovereign received autocratic power over Russia completely unexpectedly, after the sudden, unforeseen and unforeseen death of Alexander III. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled the state of the heir to the throne immediately after the death of his father: “He could not collect his thoughts. He knew that he had become the Emperor, and this terrible burden of power pressed on him. “Sandro, what am I going to do! he exclaimed pathetically. - What will happen to Russia now? I am not yet prepared to be King! I cannot rule the Empire. I don't even know how to talk to ministers. ”

However, after a brief period of confusion, the new emperor firmly took the helm of government and held it for twenty-two years, until he fell victim to a conspiracy at the top. Until a dense cloud of "treason, and cowardice, and deceit", as he himself noted in his diary on March 2, 1917, began to form around him.

The black mythology directed against the last sovereign was actively dispelled by both emigrant historians and modern Russian ones. And yet, in the minds of many, including those who are completely church-going, our fellow citizens stubbornly settled down evil tales, gossip and anecdotes that were passed off as truth in Soviet history textbooks.

The myth about the guilt of Nicholas II in the Khodynskaya tragedy

Any list of accusations tacitly begins with Khodynka, a terrible crush that occurred during the coronation celebrations in Moscow on May 18, 1896. You might think the sovereign ordered to organize this crush! And if anyone is to blame for what happened, then the uncle of the emperor, the Moscow governor-general Sergei Alexandrovich, who did not foresee the very possibility of such an influx of public. At the same time, it should be noted that they did not hide what happened, all the newspapers wrote about Khodynka, all of Russia knew about it. The Russian emperor and empress, the next day, visited all the wounded in hospitals and defended a memorial service for the dead. Nicholas II ordered to pay a pension to the victims. And they received it until 1917, until the politicians, who for years speculated on the Khodynskaya tragedy, made it so that any pensions in Russia stopped being paid altogether.

And the slander, repeated over the years, that the tsar, despite the Khodynka tragedy, went to the ball and had fun there, sounds very mean. The sovereign really was forced to go to an official reception at the French embassy, ​​which he could not help but visit for diplomatic reasons (an insult to the allies!), Paid his respects to the ambassador and left, having stayed there for only 15 (!) Minutes.

And from this they created the myth of a heartless despot who revels while his subjects die. Hence the absurd nickname "Bloody", created by the radicals and taken up by the educated public.

The myth about the guilt of the monarch in unleashing the Russo-Japanese war

The Emperor admonishes the soldiers of the Russo-Japanese War. 1904

They say that the sovereign dragged Russia into the Russo-Japanese war, because the autocracy needed a "small victorious war."

Unlike the "educated" Russian society, confident of inevitable victory and contemptuously calling the Japanese "macaques", the emperor knew all the difficulties of the situation in the Far East and tried with all his might to prevent war. And do not forget - it was Japan that attacked Russia in 1904. Treacherously, without declaring war, the Japanese attacked our ships in Port Arthur.

The defeats of the Russian army and navy in the Far East can be blamed on Kuropatkin, Rozhdestvensky, Stessel, Linevich, Nebogatov, and anyone from the generals and admirals, but not the sovereign, who was thousands of miles from the theater of military operations and nevertheless did everything for victory.

For example, the fact that by the end of the war 20, and not 4 military echelons a day went along the unfinished Trans-Siberian Railway (as at the beginning) is the merit of Nicholas II himself.

And also on the Japanese side our revolutionary society "fought", which needed not victory, but defeat, to which its representatives themselves honestly admitted. For example, representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party clearly wrote in an appeal to the Russian officers: “Every victory of yours threatens Russia with the disaster of strengthening order, every defeat brings the hour of deliverance closer. What is surprising if the Russians rejoice at the successes of your enemy? " Revolutionaries and liberals diligently fanned confusion in the rear of the belligerent country, doing this, including with Japanese money. Now this is already well known.

The myth of "Bloody Sunday"

For decades, the tsar's on-duty accusation remained "Bloody Sunday" - the shooting of an allegedly peaceful demonstration on January 9, 1905. Why, they say, did not leave the Winter Palace and fraternize with the people devoted to him?

Let's start with the simplest fact - the Tsar was not in Zimny, he was in his country residence, in Tsarskoe Selo. He did not intend to come to the city, since both the mayor, I. A. Fullon, and the police authorities assured the emperor that they had "everything under control." By the way, they did not deceive Nicholas II too much. In a normal situation, troops brought out into the street would have been sufficient to prevent riots.

Nobody foresaw the scale of the January 9 demonstration, as well as the activities of the provocateurs. When the Socialist-Revolutionary militants started shooting at the soldiers from the crowd of supposedly "peaceful demonstrators", it was not difficult to foresee the retaliatory actions. From the very beginning, the organizers of the demonstration planned a clash with the authorities, not a peaceful march. They didn’t need political reforms, they needed “great upheavals”.

But what does the sovereign himself have to do with it? During the entire revolution of 1905-1907, he strove to find contact with Russian society, went for specific and sometimes even overly bold reforms (such as the position under which the first State Dumas were elected). And what did he get in return? Spit and hatred, calls "Down with autocracy!" and encouraging bloody riots.

However, the revolution was not "crushed". The rebellious society was pacified by the sovereign, who skillfully combined the use of force and new, more thoughtful reforms (the electoral law of June 3, 1907, according to which Russia finally received a normally functioning parliament).

The myth of how the tsar "handed over" Stolypin

They reproach the sovereign for allegedly insufficient support for the "Stolypin reforms". But who made Pyotr Arkadievich prime minister, if not Nicholas II himself? Contrary to, by the way, the opinion of the court and the immediate environment. And, if there were moments of misunderstanding between the sovereign and the head of the cabinet, then they are inevitable in any intense and complex work. The allegedly planned resignation of Stolypin did not mean a rejection of his reforms.

The myth of the omnipotence of Rasputin

Tales about the last sovereign cannot do without constant stories about the "dirty man" Rasputin, who enslaved the "weak-willed tsar". Now, after many objective investigations of the "Rasputin legend", among which A. N. Bokhanov's "Truth about Grigory Rasputin" stands out for its fundamental nature, it is clear that the influence of the Siberian elder on the emperor was negligible. And the fact that the sovereign "did not remove Rasputin from the throne"? Where could he remove it from? From the bed of his sick son, whom Rasputin saved when all the doctors had already given up on Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich? Let everyone think for themselves: is he ready to sacrifice the life of a child for the sake of stopping public gossip and hysterical newspaper chatter?

The myth about the guilt of the sovereign in the "misconduct" of the First World War

Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. Photo by R. Golike and A. Vilborg. 1913

Emperor Nicholas II is reproached for the fact that he did not prepare Russia for the First World War. The public figure I. L. Solonevich wrote about the efforts of the sovereign to prepare the Russian army for a possible war and about the sabotage of his efforts by the "educated society": we are democrats and we do not want a military clique. Nicholas II arms the army by violating the spirit of the Basic Laws: in the manner of Article 86. This article provides for the right of the government in exceptional cases and during parliamentary holidays to pass temporary laws even without parliament - so that they would be retroactively introduced at the very first parliamentary session. The Duma was dismissed (holidays), loans for machine guns passed without the Duma. And when the session began, nothing could be done. "

And again, unlike ministers or military leaders (like Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich), the sovereign did not want war, he tried to delay it with all his might, knowing about the insufficient preparedness of the Russian army. For example, he spoke directly about this to the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria Neklyudov: “Now, Neklyudov, listen to me carefully. Do not forget for one minute the fact that we cannot fight. I don't want a war. I made it my immutable rule to do everything to preserve all the advantages of a peaceful life for my people. At this moment in history, everything that could lead to war must be avoided. There is no doubt that we cannot get involved in a war - at least for the next five to six years - until 1917. Although, if the vital interests and honor of Russia are at stake, we will be able, if absolutely necessary, to accept the challenge, but not earlier than 1915. But remember - not a minute earlier, whatever the circumstances or reasons, and whatever position we are in. "

Of course, much of the First World War did not go as planned. But why should the emperor be blamed for these troubles and surprises, who at the beginning was not even the commander-in-chief? Could he personally have prevented the "Samson catastrophe"? Or the breakthrough of the German cruisers "Goebena" and "Breslau" into the Black Sea, after which the plans to coordinate the actions of the Allies in the Entente went to waste?

When the will of the emperor could correct the situation, the emperor did not hesitate, despite the objections of ministers and advisers. In 1915, the Russian army was under the threat of such a complete defeat that its Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, literally sobbed in despair. It was then that Nicholas II took the most decisive step - not only stood at the head of the Russian army, but also stopped the retreat, which threatened to turn into a panicky flight.

The sovereign did not imagine himself to be a great commander, he knew how to listen to the opinion of military advisers and choose successful decisions for the Russian troops. According to his instructions, the work of the rear was adjusted, according to his instructions, new and even the latest technology (like Sikorsky bombers or Fedorov assault rifles) was put into service. And if in 1914 the Russian military industry fired 104,900 shells, then in 1916 - 30,974,678! So much military equipment was prepared that it was enough for five years of the Civil War, and for the armament of the Red Army in the first half of the twenties.

In 1917, Russia, under the military leadership of its emperor, was ready for victory. Many wrote about this, even W. Churchill, who was always skeptical and cautious about Russia: “Fate has never been as cruel to any country as to Russia. Her ship went down when the harbor was in sight. She had already endured the storm when it all came crashing down. All sacrifices have already been made, all work has been completed. Despair and betrayal seized power when the task had already been completed. The long retreats ended; shell hunger defeated; armament flowed in a wide stream; a stronger, more numerous, better equipped army guarded the huge front; the rear assembly points were overflowing with people ... In the government of states, when great events are happening, the leader of the nation, whoever he is, is condemned for failures and glorified for successes. It is not about who did the work, who drew up the battle plan; blame or praise for the outcome prevails on the one who holds the authority of the supreme responsibility. Why should Nicholas II be denied this ordeal? .. His efforts are understated; His actions are condemned; His memory is defamed ... Stop and say: who else was suitable? There was no shortage of talented and courageous people, people who were ambitious and proud in spirit, courageous and powerful. But no one was able to answer the few simple questions on which the life and glory of Russia depended. Holding the victory in her hands, she fell to the ground alive, like ancient Herod, devoured by worms. "

At the beginning of 1917, the sovereign really failed to cope with the joint conspiracy of the top of the military and the leaders of the opposition political forces.

And who could? It was beyond human strength.

The myth of voluntary renunciation

And yet the main thing that even many monarchists accuse Nicholas II of is precisely renunciation, "moral desertion", "flight from office." That he, according to the poet A. A. Blok, "renounced, as if the squadron had surrendered."

Now, again, after the scrupulous works of modern researchers, it becomes clear that no voluntary there was no abdication. Instead, a real coup d'état took place. Or, as the historian and publicist M.V. Nazarov aptly noted, it was not a "renunciation" but a "renunciation" that took place.

Even in the wildest Soviet times, they did not deny that the events of February 23 - March 2, 1917 at the tsarist General Headquarters and at the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front were a summit coup, "fortunately" that coincided with the beginning of the "February bourgeois revolution" started (of course but!) by the forces of the St. Petersburg proletariat.

Material on the topic

On March 2, 1917, Russian Emperor Nicholas II signed the abdication of the throne in favor of his brother Mikhail (who also soon abdicated). This day is considered the date of the death of the Russian monarchy. But there are still many questions about renunciation. We asked the candidate of historical sciences Gleb Eliseev to comment on them.

With the inflated Bolshevik underground riots in St. Petersburg, everything is now clear. The conspirators only took advantage of this circumstance, grossly exaggerating its significance, in order to lure the sovereign out of Headquarters, depriving him of any connection with any loyal parts and the government. And when the tsar's train with great difficulty reached Pskov, where the headquarters of General N.V. Ruzsky, the commander of the Northern Front and one of the active conspirators, was located, the emperor was completely blocked and deprived of communication with the outside world.

In fact, General Ruzsky arrested the tsarist train and the emperor himself. And severe psychological pressure on the sovereign began. Nicholas II was begged to relinquish power, to which he never aspired. Moreover, this was done not only by the Duma deputies Guchkov and Shulgin, but also by the commanders of all (!) Fronts and almost all fleets (with the exception of Admiral A. V. Kolchak). The Emperor was told that his decisive step would be able to prevent confusion, bloodshed, that this would immediately stop the Petersburg riots ...

Now we know very well that the sovereign was basely deceived. What could he think then? At the forgotten station Dno or on the sidings in Pskov, cut off from the rest of Russia? Didn't he consider that it is better for a Christian to humbly surrender the royal power than to shed the blood of his subjects?

But even under the pressure of the conspirators, the emperor did not dare to go against the law and conscience. The manifesto drawn up by him clearly did not suit the envoys of the State Duma. The document, which was eventually made public as the text of the abdication, raises doubts among a number of historians. Its original has not survived; only a copy of it is available in the Russian State Archives. There are reasonable assumptions that the sovereign's signature was copied from the order on the acceptance of the high command by Nicholas II in 1915. The signature of the Minister of the Court, Count VB Frederiks, who allegedly assured the abdication, was also forged. By the way, the count himself clearly spoke about it later, on June 2, 1917, during interrogation: "But for me to write such a thing, I can swear that I would not do it."

And already in St. Petersburg, the deceived and confused Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich did what, in principle, he had no right to do - he handed over power to the Provisional Government. As A. I. Solzhenitsyn noted: “The abdication of Mikhail became the end of the monarchy. He is worse than he renounced: he barred the path to all other possible heirs to the throne, he handed over power to an amorphous oligarchy. His abdication turned the change of the monarch into a revolution. "

Usually, after statements about the unlawful overthrow of the sovereign from the throne, both in scientific discussions and on the Web, shouts immediately begin: “Why did Tsar Nicholas not protest later? Why didn't you denounce the conspirators? Why didn't he raise the loyal troops and lead them against the rioters? "

That is - why didn't you start a civil war?

Because the sovereign did not want her. Because he hoped that by his departure he would calm down the new turmoil, believing that the whole point was in the possible hostility of society towards him personally. He, too, could not help but succumb to the hypnosis of the anti-state, anti-monarchist hatred that Russia had been subjected to for years. As A. I. Solzhenitsyn correctly wrote about the “liberal-radical Field” that swept the empire: “For many years (decades) this Field flowed unhindered, its lines of force thickened - and penetrated and subjugated all the brains in the country, at least somewhat touched enlightenment, even its rudiments. It almost completely owned the intelligentsia. More rare, but his lines of force were penetrated by its power lines and state-bureaucratic circles, and the military, and even the priesthood, the episcopate (the whole Church as a whole is already ... powerless against this Field), and even those who most fought against Paul: the most right-wing circles and the throne itself. "

And did these troops loyal to the emperor exist in reality? After all, even the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich as early as March 1, 1917 (that is, before the sovereign's formal abdication) transferred the Guards crew subordinate to him to the jurisdiction of the Duma conspirators and appealed to other military units to “join the new government”!

The attempt of Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich to prevent bloodshed with the help of renouncing power, with the help of voluntary self-sacrifice, stumbled upon the evil will of tens of thousands of those who did not want the pacification and victory of Russia, but blood, madness and the creation of a "paradise on earth" for a "new man", free from faith and conscience.

And even the defeated Christian sovereign was like a sharp knife in the throat to such “guardians of humanity”. He was intolerable, impossible.

They could not help but kill him.

The myth that the shooting of the royal family was the arbitrariness of the Uraloblsovet

Emperor Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexei
in the link. Tobolsk, 1917-1918

The more or less vegetarian, toothless early Provisional Government limited itself to the arrest of the emperor and his family, Kerensky's socialist clique achieved the exile of the sovereign, his wife and children. And for months, until the Bolshevik coup, one can see how the dignified, purely Christian behavior of the emperor in exile and the evil vanity of the politicians of the “new Russia”, who sought to “for a start”, lead the sovereign into “political oblivion”, contrast with each other.

And then an openly God-fighting Bolshevik gang came to power, which decided to transform this non-existence from “political” into “physical”. Indeed, back in April 1917, Lenin declared: "We consider Wilhelm II to be the same crowned robber, worthy of execution, like Nicholas II."

Only one thing is not clear - why did they delay? Why didn't they try to destroy Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich immediately after the October Revolution?

Probably because they were afraid of popular indignation, they were afraid of public reaction under their still fragile power. Apparently, the unpredictable behavior of "abroad" was also frightening. In any case, the British Ambassador D. Buchanan warned the Provisional Government: "Any insult inflicted on the Emperor and His Family will destroy the sympathy caused by March and the course of the revolution, and humiliate the new government in the eyes of the world." True, in the end it turned out that these are just "words, words, nothing but words."

And yet there remains the feeling that, in addition to rational motives, there was some inexplicable, almost mystical fear of what the fanatics were planning to do.

After all, for some reason, years after the Yekaterinburg murder, rumors spread that only one sovereign was shot. Then they declared (even at a completely official level) that the king's killers were severely condemned for abuse of power. And later, almost the entire Soviet period, the version about the "arbitrariness of the Yekaterinburg Council" was officially adopted, allegedly frightened by the white troops approaching the city. They say that the sovereign was not released and did not become the "banner of counter-revolution", he had to be destroyed. The fog of fornication hid a secret, and the essence of the secret was a planned and clearly planned savage murder.

Its exact details and background have not yet been clarified, eyewitness testimonies are surprisingly confused, and even the discovered remains of the Royal Martyrs still raise doubts about their authenticity.

Now only a few unambiguous facts are clear.

On April 30, 1918, Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughter Maria were escorted from Tobolsk, where they had been in exile since August 1917, to Yekaterinburg. They were placed in custody in the former house of engineer N. N. Ipatiev, located at the corner of Voznesensky Prospect. The rest of the children of the emperor and empress - daughters Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and son Alexei, were reunited with their parents only on May 23.

Was this an initiative of the Yekaterinburg Council, not coordinated with the Central Committee? Unlikely. Judging by indirect evidence, at the beginning of July 1918, the top leadership of the Bolshevik Party (primarily Lenin and Sverdlov) made a decision to "liquidate the royal family."

For example, Trotsky wrote about this in his memoirs:

“My next visit to Moscow fell after the fall of Yekaterinburg. In a conversation with Sverdlov, I asked in passing:

Yes, and where is the king?

- It's over, - he answered, - shot.

And where is the family?

And the family is with him.

Everything? I asked, apparently with a tinge of surprise.

That's all, - answered Sverdlov, - but what?

He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer.

- Who decided? I asked.

We decided here. Ilyich believed that we should not leave them a living banner, especially in the current difficult conditions. "

(LD Trotsky. Diaries and letters. M .: "Hermitage", 1994. P.120. (Recorded on April 9, 1935); Leon Trotsky. Diaries and letters. Edited by Yuri Felshtinsky. USA, 1986 , P. 101.)

At midnight on July 17, 1918, the emperor, his wife, children and servants were awakened, taken to the basement and brutally killed. In the fact that they were brutally and cruelly killed, all the testimonies of eyewitnesses, which are so different in other respects, coincide in an amazing way.

The bodies were secretly taken out of Yekaterinburg and somehow tried to destroy. Everything that remained after the abuse of the bodies was buried just as secretly.

The Yekaterinburg victims foresaw their fate, and it was not for nothing that Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna, during her imprisonment in Yekaterinburg, crossed out the lines in one of the books: “Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ went to death, as on a holiday, facing inevitable death, retained the same wondrous peace of mind , which did not leave them for a minute. They walked calmly towards death because they hoped to enter into another, spiritual life, opening up to the person behind the grave. "

P. S. Sometimes it is noticed that "here is de Tsar Nicholas II, by his death, atoned for all his sins before Russia." In my opinion, this statement reveals some kind of blasphemous, immoral twist of public consciousness. All the victims of the Yekaterinburg Golgotha ​​were "guilty" only of persistent confession of the faith of Christ until their death and fell a martyr's death.

And the first of them was the sovereign-passion-bearer Nikolai Alexandrovich.

On the splash screen is a fragment of a photo: Nicholas II in the imperial train. 1917

Lived: 1868-1818
Reign: 1894-1917

Born on May 6 (19 old style), 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. Russian emperor who reigned from October 21 (November 2) 1894 to March 2 (March 15) 1917. Belonged to the Romanov dynasty, was a son and successor.

He was born with the title - His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke. In 1881, he received the title of Heir to the Crown Prince, after the death of his grandfather, the Emperor.

Title of Emperor Nicholas II

Full title of the emperor from 1894 to 1917: “By God's passing grace, We, Nicholas II (Church Slavonic form in some manifestos - Nicholas II), Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuanian, Volynsk, Podolsk and Finland; Prince of Estland, Livonia, Courland and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Belostok, Korelsky, Tversky, Yugorsky, Perm, Vyatsky, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novgorod, lower lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsky, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udora, Obdorsky, Kondiysky, Vitebsk, Mstislavsky and all northern countries; and the Sovereign of Iversky, Kartalinsky and Kabardinsky lands and regions of Armenians; Cherkassk and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Owner, Sovereign of Turkestan; The Norwegian Heir, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarnsky, Dietmarsen and Oldenburgsky and so on, and so on, and so on. "

Peak of economic development in Russia and at the same time growth
the revolutionary movement, which resulted in the revolutions of 1905-1907 and 1917, fell on years of the reign of Nicholas 2... Foreign policy at that time was aimed at Russia's participation in the blocs of European powers, the contradictions that arose between which became one of the reasons for the outbreak of the war with Japan and the First World War.

After the events of the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated, and a period of civil war soon began in Russia. The provisional government sent him to Siberia, then to the Urals. Together with his family, he was shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918.

The personality of the last tsar is characterized by contemporaries and historians contradictory; most of them believed that his strategic ability in the conduct of public affairs was not successful enough to improve the political situation at the time.

After the revolution of 1917, he began to be called Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (before that the surname "Romanov" was not indicated by members of the imperial family, the titles indicated by the ancestral affiliation: Emperor, Empress, Grand Duke, Tsarevich).
With the nickname Bloody, which the opposition gave him, he figured in Soviet historiography.

Biography of Nicholas 2

He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Feodorovna and Emperor Alexander III.

In 1885-1890. received home education as part of a gymnasium course in a special program, which combined the course of the Academy of the General Staff and the Faculty of Law of the University. Education and upbringing took place under the personal supervision of Alexander III with a traditional religious basis.

Most often he lived with his family in the Alexander Palace. And he preferred to rest in the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. For annual trips across the Baltic Sea and the Finnish Sea, I had at my disposal a yacht "Shtandart".

At the age of 9, he began keeping a diary. The archive contains 50 thick notebooks for the years 1882-1918. Some of them have been published.

He was fond of photography, he liked to watch movies. I also read serious works, especially on historical topics, and entertaining literature. He smoked cigarettes with tobacco grown specially in Turkey (a gift from the Turkish Sultan).

On November 14, 1894, a significant event took place in the life of the heir to the throne - the marriage with the German princess Alice of Hesse, who after the baptism ceremony took the name - Alexandra Feodorovna. They had 4 daughters - Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatiana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). And the long-awaited fifth child on July 30 (August 12) 1904 was the only son - Tsarevich Alexei.

Coronation of Nicholas 2

On May 14 (26), 1896, the coronation of the new emperor took place. In 1896 he
toured Europe, where he met with Queen Victoria (wife's grandmother), William II, Franz Joseph. The final stage of the trip was a visit to the capital of the allied France.

His first personnel reshuffle was the fact of the dismissal of the Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland, Gurko I.V. and the appointment of A.B Lobanov-Rostovsky as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
And the first major international action was the so-called Triple Intervention.
Having made huge concessions to the opposition at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II made an attempt to unite Russian society against external enemies. In the summer of 1916, after the situation at the front had stabilized, the Duma opposition united with the general conspirators and decided to take advantage of the situation to overthrow the tsar.

They even called the date February 12-13, 1917, as the day of the emperor's abdication from the throne. It was said that a "great act" would take place - the sovereign would abdicate, and the future emperor would be appointed the heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, and the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich would become the regent.

On February 23, 1917, a strike began in Petrograd, which became general three days later. On February 27, 1917, in the morning, there were soldiers' uprisings in Petrograd and Moscow, as well as their unification with the strikers.

The situation escalated after the proclamation of the emperor's manifesto on February 25, 1917 on the termination of the meeting of the State Duma.

On February 26, 1917, the tsar gave an order to General Khabalov "to end the riots that are unacceptable in the difficult time of the war." General N. I. Ivanov was sent on February 27 to Petrograd with the aim of suppressing the uprising.

On February 28 in the evening he went to Tsarskoe Selo, but could not get through and, due to the loss of communication with the Headquarters, he arrived in Pskov on March 1, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the leadership of General Ruzsky was located.

Abdication of Nicholas II from the throne

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the emperor decided to abdicate in favor of the Tsarevich during the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the evening of the same day he announced to V.V.Shulgin and A.I. Guchkov about the decision to abdicate for his son. March 2, 1917 at 23 hours 40 minutes. he handed over to A.I. Guchkov. Manifesto of abdication, where he wrote: "We command our brother to rule the affairs of the state in full and inviolable unity with the representatives of the people."

Nicholas II and his family from March 9 to August 14, 1917 lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.
In connection with the strengthening of the revolutionary movement in Petrograd, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the royal prisoners into the depths of Russia, fearing for their lives. After long disputes, Tobolsk was chosen as the city of the settlement of the former emperor and his relatives. They were allowed to take their personal belongings and necessary furniture with them and offer the attendants a voluntary escort to the place of their new settlement.

On the eve of his departure, AF Kerensky (head of the Provisional Government) brought the brother of the former Tsar, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail was soon exiled to Perm and on the night of June 13, 1918, he was killed by the Bolshevik authorities.
On August 14, 1917, a train departed from Tsarskoye Selo under the guise of the "Japanese Red Cross Mission" with members of the former imperial family. He was accompanied by a second team, which included guards (7 officers, 337 soldiers).
The trains arrived in Tyumen on August 17, 1917, after which the arrested on three courts were taken to Tobolsk. The Romanovs were accommodated in the governor's house, specially renovated for their arrival. They were allowed to attend services at the local Church of the Annunciation. The protection regime of the Romanov family in Tobolsk was much easier than that of Tsarskoye Selo. They led a measured, calm life.

The permission of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation to transfer Romanov and his family members to Moscow for the purpose of trial over them was obtained in April 1918.
On April 22, 1918, a convoy with machine guns of 150 people left Tobolsk for the city of Tyumen. On April 30, the train arrived in Yekaterinburg from Tyumen. To accommodate the Romanovs, a house that belonged to mining engineer Ipatiev was requisitioned. The service staff also lived in the same house: the cook Kharitonov, Doctor Botkin, the room girl Demidova, the lackey Trupp and the cook Sednev.

The fate of Nicholas 2 and his family

To resolve the issue of the future fate of the imperial family, in early July 1918, military commissar F. Goloshchekin urgently left for Moscow. The Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars authorized the execution of all the Romanovs. After that, on July 12, 1918, on the basis of the adopted decision, the Ural Soviet of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies at a meeting decided to execute the royal family.

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev mansion, the so-called "House of Special Purpose", the former Emperor of Russia, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Doctor Botkin and three servants (except for the cook) were shot.

The personal property of the Romanovs was plundered.
All members of his family were canonized by the Catacomb Church in 1928.
In 1981, the last tsar of Russia was canonized by the Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia the Orthodox Church canonized him as a martyr only 19 years later, in 2000.

In accordance with the decision of August 20, 2000, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the last emperor of Russia, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess Maria, Anastasia, Olga, Tatiana, Tsarevich Alexei were numbered among the holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia, revealed and not revealed.

This decision was perceived by the society ambiguously and was criticized. Some opponents of canonization believe that the reckoning Tsar Nicholas 2 to the ranks of the saints is most likely political in nature.

The result of all the events related to the fate of the former royal family was the appeal of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, head of the Russian Imperial House in Madrid, to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in December 2005, demanding the rehabilitation of the royal family, which was shot in 1918.

On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation) made a decision to recognize the last Russian emperor and members of the royal family as victims of illegal political repression and rehabilitated them.

Nicholas II - the last emperor of the Russian Empire (May 18, 1868 - July 17, 1918). He received an excellent education, spoke several foreign languages ​​perfectly, rose to the rank of colonel of the Russian army, as well as admiral of the fleet and field marshal of the British army. He became emperor after the sudden death of his father - the accession to the throne of Nicholas II, when Nicholas was only 26.

Brief biography of Nicholas 2

From childhood, Nicholas was trained as a future ruler - he was engaged in a deep study of economics, geography, politics and languages. He achieved great success in military affairs, to which he had a penchant. In 1894, just a month after the death of his father, he married the German princess Alice of Hesse (Alexandra Feodorovna). Two years later (May 26, 1896) the official coronation of Nicholas II and his wife took place. The coronation took place in an atmosphere of mourning, in addition, due to the huge number of people wishing to attend the ceremony, many people died in the stampede.

Children of Nicholas 2: daughters Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatiana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901), as well as son Alexei (August 2, 1904) .). Despite the fact that the boy was diagnosed with a serious illness - hemophilia (incoagulability of blood) - he was prepared to rule as the only heir.

Russia under Nicholas II was in the stage of economic recovery, despite this, the political situation was aggravated. The failure of Nicholas as a politician led to the growth of internal tension in the country. As a result, after January 9, 1905, a rally of workers going to the tsar was brutally dispersed (the event was called "Bloody Sunday"), the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907 flared up in the Russian Empire. The result of the revolution was the manifesto "On the improvement of state order", which limited the power of the king and gave the people civil liberties. Because of all the events that took place during his reign, the tsar received the nickname Nicholas II the Bloody.

In 1914, the First World War began, which negatively affected the state of the Russian Empire and only exacerbated internal political tension. The failures of Nicholas II in the war led to the fact that in 1917 an uprising broke out in Petrograd, as a result of which the tsar voluntarily abdicated the throne. The date of the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne is March 2, 1917.

The years of the reign of Nicholas 2 - 1896 - 1917.

In March 1917, the entire royal family was arrested and later sent into exile. The execution of Nikolai 2 and his family took place on the night of July 16-17.

In 1980, members of the royal family were canonized by a foreign church, and then, in 2000, by the Russian Orthodox.

The politics of Nicholas 2

Under Nicholas, many reforms were carried out. Major reforms of Nicholas II:

• Agrarian. Securing the land not to the community, but to private peasant-owners;
• Military. Reform of the army after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War;
• Management. The State Duma was created, the people received civil rights.

Results of the reign of Nicholas 2

• The growth of agriculture, ridding the country of hunger;
• Economic, industrial and cultural growth;
• The growth of tensions in domestic politics, which led to a revolution and a change in the state system.

With the death of Nicholas II, the end of the Russian Empire and the monarchy in Russia came.

Nicholas II (short biography)

Nicholas II (May 18, 1868 - July 17, 1918) was the last Russian emperor, as well as the son of Alexander III. Thanks to this, he received an excellent education, studying languages, military affairs, jurisprudence, economics, literature and history. Nicholas had to sit on the throne quite early because of the death of his father.

On May 26, 1896, the coronation of Nicholas II and his wife took place. On these holidays, a terrible event also occurred, which in history remained under the name "Khodynki", the result of which was the death of many people (according to some data, more than one thousand two hundred people).

During the reign of Nicholas II, an unprecedented economic recovery was observed in the state. At the same time, the agricultural sector was significantly strengthened - the state is becoming the main exporter of agricultural products in Europe. A gold stable currency is also being introduced. The industry is developing at an active pace: enterprises are being built, big cities are growing, and railways are being built. Nicholas II was a successful reformer. So, he introduces a rationed day for workers, providing them with insurance and carrying out excellent reforms for the navy and army. Emperor Nicholas fully supported the development of science and culture in the state.

However, despite such an improvement in the life of the country, there were still riots in it. For example, in January 1905, the first Russian revolution takes place, the impetus for which was the event referred to by historians as "Bloody Sunday." As a result, on October 17 of the same year, a manifesto "On the improvement of state order" was adopted, which dealt with civil liberties. A parliament was formed which included the State Council and the State Duma. On the third of June, the so-called "Third-June coup" took place, which changed the rules for electing to the Duma.

In 1914, the First World War begins, due to which the state of the state deteriorated significantly. Each of the failures in the battles undermined the authority of the ruler Nicholas II. In February 1917, an uprising began in Petrograd, which reached grandiose proportions. On March 2, 1917, fearing large-scale bloodshed, Nicholas signed an act of abdication from the Russian throne.

On March 9, 1917, the interim government arrested the entire Romanov family, after which they sent them to the Tsarist village. In August they were transported to Tobolsk, and in April 1918 - to Yekaterinburg. On the night of the sixteenth to the seventeenth of July, the Romanovs are taken to the basement, the death sentence is read out and shot.