When Nikolay II Alexandrovich Romanov came into power on Nov. 1, 1894, he was nowhere near ready for the massive responsibilities involved with running the world’s largest empire.
Russia had been ruled by the Romanov royal family for the better part of 300 years, and as the 19th century gave way to the 20th, its borders had stretched to approximately one-sixth of the world’s total area. Not only was Russia vast in scale, incorporating hundreds of different languages and cultures across two continents, it was also an empire on the verge of radical social changes. Those changes would manifest themselves very dramatically over the next two decades.
Approximately 136 million people fell under Czar Nicholas II’s direct rule in 1900, the majority of them extremely poor, either scraping out a living farming or working in factories in the urban areas under deplorable conditions. Nicholas and his family – very likely the wealthiest family in the world at the time – were fairly oblivious to the poverty and unrest growing throughout the working class. And while there were many poor decisions he made that contributed to the Russian royal family’s murder in 1917, it was primarily the Czar’s failure to recognize the plight of his people that directly led to his death and the death of his wife and five children, and ultimately the emergence of a socialist movement that would completely reshape the global political spectrum.
Nicholas II became Czar at the age of 26 following the death of his father, Alexander III, who was stricken with kidney disease and died at 49. It is documented that because of his sudden illness and relatively premature death, Alexander did not appropriately begin grooming his son for rule because he simply believed he had more time to do so. So, primarily relying on the advice of his advisors and ministers, many of whom were still inclined to the autocratic method of governing, Nicholas adopted the monarchial policies of his father and declined to establish any type of reform that would disperse governing within a democratic system, much like Great Britain had adopted nearly 200 years before with the creation of its parliament.
Things did not go well from the beginning for the new Czar. His coronation celebration outside of Moscow was marred by tragedy, after 1,400 people were basically trampled to death at a festival that featured free food and commemorative gifts for those in attendance. Organizers did not anticipate the influx of people that showed up, and there simply wasn’t enough food, drink and gifts to go around. Rather than halt his coronation proceedings and address the tragedy that had taken place, Nicholas instead attended a party that night hosted by the French ambassador, completely ignoring what would be considered a modern-day political PR nightmare.
The situation continued to deteriorate in 1904, when in the interest of establishing a permanent warm-water Pacific port for its navy while extending its sphere of influence in the Far East, Russia went to war with the Empire of Japan. Nicholas and his military commanders completely underestimated Japan’s industrial and naval capabilities, and in short, after a year and a half of fighting, the Japanese mopped the floor with them.
The humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War was unsurprisingly not taken very well by the public, sparking a wave of further social unrest that is now known as the 1905 Russian Revolution. The revolt was put down by the military, but the lingering sentiment that remained directly led to the emergence of several radical political movements, including Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik faction.
Domestically, Nicholas and his wife Alexandra were contending with a difficult situation in terms of their fifth child, Alexei, their first-born son and heir to the throne. Alexei suffered from hemophilia, a condition that causes uncontrollable bleeding from the slightest cut or bruise, with many afflicted with it dying at an early age. Knowing how the public would react to a potential weakness in the line of succession, the Czar and Czarina endeavoured to keep it a secret from virtually everyone outside the family, employing the unorthodox ‘healing practices’ of mystic and holy man Grigori Rasputin.
Apparently, Rasputin was the only person able to calm the boy and by proxy his mother, allowing his bleeding to slow and subside. Needless to say, the Czarina became completely reliant on the man, much to the misgivings of many surrounding the family and in the government who were privy to the information. Rasputin was a reputed sexual deviant and rumoured to be having an affair with Alexandra herself (see the Boney M. song of 1978 – that’ll be in your head for a couple days now), and once the public got word of this the graffiti began to fly on the walls of buildings in St. Petersburg and throughout the empire. Yet another public relations nightmare for the Romanovs.
Things came to a head for Nicholas during the First World War. After siding with ally Serbia following the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, allies Austria-Hungary and Germany declared war on Russia. From the onset, the disorganized and undertrained Russian army suffered defeat after defeat, despite the Czar himself ‘taking command’ of the military directly and maintaining a presence on the Eastern Front in an attempt to further inspire his troops. It did not have the effect Nicholas intended.
With the war going poorly, working conditions and workers’ rights continuing to deteriorate, a lack of governmental reform (outside the virtually powerless state duma that was established in 1905 to give some legislative power to elected officials representing the people), and large portions of the population starving throughout the empire, a series of demonstrations and sometimes violent protests led Nicholas to abdicate the throne in early 1917. He and his family would essentially be held hostage for the next year, before Bolshevik agents executed the Czar, the Czarina, and their five children on July 17, 1918.
One of the reasons I find history so fascinating is how one event can have such a chain reaction to shaping the next 10, 50 or even 100 years. Nicholas II’s chain of decision-making saw not only the end of the monarchy in Russia, but more or less directly led to the emergence of communism as a significant movement not just within what would become the Soviet Union, but also across the globe. This is but a summarization of what transpired in Russia over the span of 22 or so years and is really just scratching the surface, and I encourage you to read more on the subject. Very interesting time period.
Maybe it was just a matter of time before socialism became the driving political movement in Russia, but had the Czar been willing to accept reform and give more power and consideration to the millions he ruled over, it’s likely that his end would not have come about so quickly. Or violently.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see back here in a fortnight.
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This is a bi-weekly opinion column; for question or comment contact Dan McNee at dmcnee@midwesternnewspapers.com.
