Nicholas II Nicholas II
Nikokai Alexandrovich (aka Nicholas II) was born on May 6, 1868 and was the oldest son of Alexander III. Nicholas II would ascend to the throne on October 20, 1894 after the death of his father (crowned on May 14, 1896). He would go on to marry the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig of Hessen named Alexandra Feodorovna (Alice Victoria Eleanor Louisa Beatrice). Together they would have five children, the most talked about later being Anastasia and the controversy of her death and if she had survived the firing squad that would later become their fate. Nicholas' political philosophy was that there was no justification in a call for political change. He believed that he had been divinely appointed and was therefore the ultimate monarch ruling over his empire and the people in that empire. Nicholas stopped moves toward a constitution or any type of representative system that would in turn limit his monarchy. Even though Nicholas was stubborn when it came to how his [monarchy] would be handled he permitted the government to sponsor huge economic development. The building of railroads seemed to be the center of the economic growth. A good railroad would promote industrial production and also provided a way of transporting the army. The most important thing that the railroads did was to spawn the growth of other industries. While expansion of industries was happening in Russia their was also tension developing between them and Japan, which would start a war in 1904. One of the things that started the tensions between Japan and Russia had to do with Russia's growing interest in the Far East, which ran into Japanese's planed expansion into Asia. Russia was defeated by Japan, 400,000 men were killed, captured or wounded. Another war that would involve Nicholas II was The Great War. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Serb nationalists on June 28, 1914 Nicholas II had to make a decision concerning what Russia should do. He didn't want to abandon his Serb allies or start a war. Hoping to prevent war with Germany, Nicholas II demanded that Russia's mobilization be only against the Austrian border. When Nicholas II order general mobilization Germany declared war on July 31, 1914, triggering the outbreak of World War I. Russia was unprepared for war and had great losses. Nicholas II would assume the position as commander-in-chief in order to lead his army directly. The loss that Russia suffered with this would end up being the greatest. They lost territory, had a huge number of casualties and confusion in Russia were the main reasons in which the Second Russian Revolution stared on February 1917. This would eventually lead to the resignation of Nicholas II on March 2, 1917. After the resignation of Nicholas II, him and the royal family stayed in Czarskoe Selo. A decision by the interim government would send them to Serbia. The royal family remained their until they were moved to Yekaterinburg after the Bolshevik October Revolution in November of 1917. The Tsar and his entire family were executed on July 17, 1918 by a firing squad in the basement of the Ipatiev House where they has been imprisoned. The bodies were then dumped into a mine shaft, later to be retrieved and two were burned while the others were buried. There has been many rumors that some of the royal family actually survived the firing squad and were still alive. People had claimed that they had seen the Emperor in labor camps in Siberia in the 1930s. Many people also came forward saying that they were the Romanov children, many saying that they were Anastasia. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the bodies of the Romanovs were located and identified. Two of the bodies were missing, that of Alexei and one of the daughters, it was thought that those two bodies were the ones burned. On August 14, 2000 Nicholas II and his immediate family were canonized as saints by the Russian Orthodox Church. They were not named martyrs but instead passion bearers. So it seems that Nicholas II was not the most successful Emperor when it came to war and conflicts. He did though help with economic developments in the country of Russia. So it is safe to say that he didn't go with the phrase "last is the best," and will probably be remembered mostly for the controversy surrounding his death then for what he did while he was Emperor of Russia. By: Jessica Corno | 