Loneliness of the Sovereign. Was Emperor Nicholas II a bad ruler? Nicholas II Alexandrovich

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, heir Tsarevich Alexei, as well as life -medic Evgeny Botkin, valet Alexey Trupp, room girl Anna Demidova and cook Ivan Kharitonov.

The last Russian Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II) ascended the throne in 1894 after the death of his father, Emperor Alexander III, and ruled until 1917, until the situation in the country became more complicated. On March 12 (February 27, old style), 1917, an armed uprising began in Petrograd, and on March 15 (March 2, old style), 1917, at the insistence of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, Nicholas II signed an abdication of the throne for himself and his son Alexei in favor of the younger brother Mikhail Alexandrovich.

After his abdication, from March to August 1917, Nicholas and his family were under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. A special commission of the Provisional Government studied materials for the possible trial of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on charges of treason. Having not found evidence and documents that clearly convicted them of this, the Provisional Government was inclined to deport them abroad (to Great Britain).

Execution of the royal family: reconstruction of eventsOn the night of July 16-17, 1918, Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot in Yekaterinburg. RIA Novosti brings to your attention a reconstruction of the tragic events that took place 95 years ago in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

In August 1917, the arrested were transported to Tobolsk. The main idea of the Bolshevik leadership was an open trial of the former emperor. In April 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanovs to Moscow. For the trial former king Vladimir Lenin spoke out, it was supposed to make Leon Trotsky the main accuser of Nicholas II. However, information appeared about the existence of “White Guard conspiracies” to kidnap the Tsar, the concentration of “conspiratorial officers” in Tyumen and Tobolsk for this purpose, and on April 6, 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the royal family to the Urals. The royal family was transported to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Ipatiev house.

The uprising of the White Czechs and the offensive of the White Guard troops on Yekaterinburg accelerated the decision to shoot the former tsar.

The commandant of the Special Purpose House, Yakov Yurovsky, was entrusted with organizing the execution of all members of the royal family, Doctor Botkin and the servants who were in the house.

The execution scene is known from investigative reports, from the words of participants and eyewitnesses, and from the stories of the direct perpetrators. Yurovsky spoke about the execution of the royal family in three documents: “Note” (1920); "Memoirs" (1922) and "Speech at a meeting of old Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg" (1934). All the details of this atrocity, conveyed by the main participant at different times and under completely different circumstances, agree on how the royal family and its servants were shot.

Based on documentary sources, it is possible to establish the time when the murder of Nicholas II, members of his family and their servants began. The car that delivered the last order to exterminate the family arrived at half past two on the night of July 16-17, 1918. After which the commandant ordered physician Botkin to wake up the royal family. It took the family about 40 minutes to get ready, then she and the servants were transferred to the semi-basement of this house, with a window overlooking Voznesensky Lane. Nicholas II carried Tsarevich Alexei in his arms because he could not walk due to illness. At Alexandra Feodorovna’s request, two chairs were brought into the room. She sat on one, and Tsarevich Alexei sat on the other. The rest were located along the wall. Yurovsky led the firing squad into the room and read the verdict.

This is how Yurovsky himself describes the execution scene: “I invited everyone to stand up. Everyone stood up, occupying the entire wall and one of the side walls. The room was very small. Nikolai stood with his back to me. I announced that the Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies The Urals decided to shoot them. Nikolai turned and asked. I repeated the order and commanded: “Shoot.” I shot first and killed Nikolai on the spot. The shooting lasted a very long time and, despite my hopes that the wooden wall would not ricochet, the bullets bounced off it ". For a long time I was not able to stop this shooting, which had become careless. But when, finally, I managed to stop, I saw that many were still alive. For example, Doctor Botkin was lying, leaning on the elbow of his right hand, as if in a resting position, with a revolver shot ended him. Alexey, Tatyana, Anastasia and Olga were also alive. Demidova was also alive. Comrade Ermakov wanted to finish the matter with a bayonet. But, however, this did not succeed. The reason became clear later (the daughters were wearing diamond armor like bras). I was forced to shoot each one in turn."

After death was confirmed, all the corpses began to be transferred to the truck. At the beginning of the fourth hour, at dawn, the corpses of the dead were taken out of Ipatiev’s house.

The remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia Romanov, as well as people from their entourage, shot in the House of Special Purpose (Ipatiev House), were discovered in July 1991 near Yekaterinburg.

On July 17, 1998, the burial of the remains of members of the royal family took place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg.

In October 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office also decided to rehabilitate members of the imperial family - the Grand Dukes and Princes of the Blood, executed by the Bolsheviks after the revolution. Servants and associates of the royal family who were executed by the Bolsheviks or subjected to repression were rehabilitated.

In January 2009, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation stopped investigating the case into the circumstances of the death and burial of the last Russian emperor, members of his family and people from his entourage, shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, "due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution responsibility and death of persons who committed premeditated murder" (subparagraphs 3 and 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR).

The tragic history of the royal family: from execution to reposeIn 1918, on the night of July 17 in Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and their children - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and heir Tsarevich Alexei were shot.

On January 15, 2009, the investigator issued a resolution to terminate the criminal case, but on August 26, 2010, the judge of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow decided, in accordance with Article 90 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, to recognize this decision as unfounded and ordered the violations to be eliminated. On November 25, 2010, the investigation decision to terminate this case was canceled by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee.

On January 14, 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the resolution was brought in accordance with the court decision and the criminal case regarding the death of representatives of the Russian Imperial House and people from their entourage in 1918-1919 was discontinued. The identification of the remains of members of the family of the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II (Romanov) and persons from his retinue has been confirmed.

On October 27, 2011, a resolution was issued to terminate the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family. The 800-page resolution outlines the main conclusions of the investigation and indicates the authenticity of the discovered remains of the royal family.

However, the question of authentication still remains open. The Russian Orthodox Church, in order to recognize the found remains as the relics of royal martyrs, the Russian Imperial House supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue. The director of the chancellery of the Russian Imperial House emphasized that genetic testing is not enough.

The Church canonized Nicholas II and his family and on July 17 celebrates the day of remembrance of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Nicholas II Alexandrovich. Born on May 6 (18), 1868 in Tsarskoye Selo - executed on July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg. Emperor of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. Reigned from October 20 (November 1), 1894 to March 2 (15), 1917. From the Imperial House of Romanov.

Full title of Nicholas II as Emperor: “By the advancing grace of God, 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 Tauride Chersonesus, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Podolsk and Finland; Prince of Estland, Livonia, Courland and Semigal, Samogit, Bialystok, Korel, Tver, Ugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novagorod of the Nizovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondiysky, Vitebsk, Mstislavsky and the entire Northern country; and the sovereign of Iversk, Kartalinsky and Kabardian lands and the Armenian region; Cherkassy and Mountain princes and other hereditary sovereign and owner, Sovereign of Turkestan; heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg, and so on, and so on, and so on.”

Nicholas II Alexandrovich was born on May 6 (18th old style) 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo.

The eldest son of the Emperor and Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Immediately after birth, on May 6 (18), 1868, he was named Nikolai. This is a traditional Romanov name. According to one version, this was a “naming after an uncle” - a custom known from the Rurikovichs: it was named in memory of his father’s elder brother and mother’s fiancé, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (1843-1865), who died young.

Two great-great-grandfathers of Nicholas II were brothers: Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel and Karl of Hesse-Kassel, and two great-great-grandmothers were cousins: Amalia of Hesse-Darmstadt and Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt.

The baptism of Nikolai Alexandrovich was performed by the confessor of the imperial family, Protopresbyter Vasily Bazhanov, in the Resurrection Church of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace on May 20 of the same year. The successors were: Queen Louise of Denmark, Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.

From birth he was titled His Imperial Highness (sovereign) Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich. After the death of his grandfather, Emperor Alexander II, as a result of a terrorist attack committed by the populists, on March 1, 1881, he received the title of heir to the crown prince.

In early childhood, the teacher of Nikolai and his brothers was the Englishman Karl Osipovich Heath (1826-1900), who lived in Russia. General G. G. Danilovich was appointed his official tutor as his heir in 1877.

Nikolai was educated at home as part of a large gymnasium course.

In 1885-1890 - according to a specially written program that combined the course of the state and economic departments of the law faculty of the university with the course of the Academy of the General Staff.

The training sessions were conducted for 13 years: the first eight years were devoted to the subjects of the extended gymnasium course, where Special attention was devoted to the study of political history, Russian literature, English, German and French (Nikolai Alexandrovich spoke English as his native one). The next five years were devoted to the study of military affairs, legal and economic sciences necessary for a statesman. Lectures were given by world-famous scientists: N. N. Beketov, N. N. Obruchev, Ts. A. Cui, M. I. Dragomirov, N. H. Bunge, and others. They all just gave lectures. They had no right to ask questions to check how they had mastered the material. Protopresbyter John Yanyshev taught the Tsarevich canon law in connection with the history of the church, the most important departments of theology and the history of religion.

On May 6 (18), 1884, upon reaching adulthood (for the heir), he took the oath in the Great Church of the Winter Palace, as announced by the highest manifesto.

The first act published on his behalf was a rescript addressed to the Moscow Governor-General V.A. Dolgorukov: 15 thousand rubles for distribution, at the discretion of that person, “among the residents of Moscow who are most in need of help.”

For the first two years, Nikolai served as a junior officer in the ranks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. For two summer seasons he served in the ranks of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment as a squadron commander, and then did a camp training in the ranks of the artillery.

On August 6 (18), 1892, he was promoted to colonel. At the same time, his father introduces him to the affairs of governing the country, inviting him to participate in meetings of the State Council and the Cabinet of Ministers. At the suggestion of the Minister of Railways S. Yu. Witte, Nikolai in 1892, in order to gain experience in government affairs, was appointed chairman of the committee for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. By the age of 23, the Heir was a man who had received extensive information in various fields of knowledge.

The educational program included travel to various provinces of Russia, which he made together with his father. To complete his education, his father allocated at his disposal the cruiser “Memory of Azov” as part of the squadron for a trip to the Far East.

In nine months, with his retinue, he visited Austria-Hungary, Greece, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and later, by land from Vladivostok through the whole of Siberia, he returned to the capital of Russia. During the trip, Nikolai kept a personal diary. In Japan, an attempt was made on Nicholas's life (the so-called Otsu Incident) - a shirt with blood stains is kept in the Hermitage.

Nicholas II's height: 170 centimeters.

Personal life of Nicholas II:

Nicholas II's first woman was a famous ballerina. They were in an intimate relationship in the period 1892-1894.

Their first meeting took place on March 23, 1890 during final exam. Their romance developed with the approval of members of the royal family, starting from Emperor Alexander III, who organized this acquaintance, and ending with Empress Maria Feodorovna, who wanted her son to become a man. Matilda called the young Tsarevich Niki.

Their relationship ended after Nicholas II's engagement to Alice of Hesse in April 1894. By Kshesinskaya’s own admission, she had a hard time surviving this breakup.

Matilda Kshesinskaya

The first meeting of Tsarevich Nicholas with his future wife took place in January 1889 during Princess Alice’s second visit to Russia. At the same time, mutual attraction arose. That same year, Nikolai asked his father for permission to marry her, but was refused.

In August 1890, during Alice's 3rd visit, Nikolai's parents did not allow him to meet with her. A letter in the same year to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna from the English Queen Victoria, in which the grandmother of the potential bride probed the prospects of a marriage union, also had a negative result.

However, due to the deteriorating health of Alexander III and the persistence of the Tsarevich, he was allowed by his father to make an official proposal to Princess Alice and on April 2 (14), 1894, Nicholas, accompanied by his uncles, went to Coburg, where he arrived on April 4. Queen Victoria and German Emperor Wilhelm II also came here.

On April 5, the Tsarevich proposed to Princess Alice, but she hesitated due to the issue of changing her religion. However, three days after a family council with relatives (Queen Victoria, sister Elizabeth Feodorovna), the princess gave her consent to the marriage and on April 8 (20), 1894 in Coburg at the wedding of the Duke of Hesse Ernst-Ludwig (Alice’s brother) and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh (daughter of Duke Alfred and Maria Alexandrovna) their engagement took place, announced in Russia with a simple newspaper notice.

In his diary Nikolai named this day “Wonderful and unforgettable in my life”.

On November 14 (26), 1894, in the palace church of the Winter Palace, the marriage of Nicholas II took place with the German princess Alice of Hesse, who after confirmation (performed on October 21 (November 2), 1894 in Livadia) took the name. The newlyweds initially settled in the Anichkov Palace next to Empress Maria Feodorovna, but in the spring of 1895 they moved to Tsarskoe Selo, and in the fall to their chambers in the Winter Palace.

In July-September 1896, after the coronation, Nikolai and Alexandra Feodorovna made a large European tour as a royal couple and visited the Austrian Emperor, the German Kaiser, the Danish King and the British Queen. The trip ended with a visit to Paris and a vacation in the empress’s homeland in Darmstadt.

In subsequent years, the royal couple gave birth to four daughters:

Olga(3 (15) November 1895;
Tatiana(29 May (10 June) 1897);
Maria(14 (26) June 1899);
Anastasia(5 (18) June 1901).

The Grand Duchesses used the abbreviation to refer to themselves in their diaries and correspondence "OTMA", compiled according to the first letters of their names, following in order of birth: Olga - Tatyana - Maria - Anastasia.

On July 30 (August 12), 1904, a fifth child was born in Peterhof and The only son- Tsarevich Alexey Nikolaevich.

All correspondence between Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II has been preserved (at English language), only one letter from Alexandra Feodorovna was lost, all her letters were numbered by the empress herself; published in Berlin in 1922.

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

Contrary to the assurances of Soviet historiography, the tsar was not among richest people Russian Empire.

I read both light entertainment literature and serious scientific works, often on historical topics - Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines.

I smoked cigarettes.

He was interested in photography, also loved watching movies, and all his children also took photographs.

In the 1900s, he became interested in the then new type of transport - cars. It has one of the largest car parks in Europe.

In 1913, the official government press organ wrote in an essay about the everyday and family side of the emperor’s life: “The Emperor does not like so-called secular pleasures. His favorite pastime is the hereditary passion of the Russian Tsars - hunting. It is organized both in permanent places of the Tsar’s stay, and in special places adapted for this purpose - in Spala, near Skierniewice, in Belovezhye.”

I had the habit of shooting crows, stray cats and dogs on walks.

Nicholas II. Documentary

Coronation and accession to the throne of Nicholas II

A few days after the death of Alexander III (October 20 (November 1), 1894) and his accession to the throne (the highest manifesto was published on October 21), on November 14 (26), 1894, in the Great Church of the Winter Palace, he married Alexandra Feodorovna. The honeymoon took place in an atmosphere of funeral services and mourning visits.

One of the first personnel decisions of Emperor Nicholas II was the dismissal of the conflict-ridden I.V. Gurko from the post of Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland in December 1894 and the appointment of A.B. Lobanov-Rostovsky to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 1895 - after the death of N. K. Girsa.

As a result of the exchange of notes dated March 27 (April 8), 1895, “the delimitation of the spheres of influence of Russia and Great Britain in the Pamir region, east of Lake Zor-Kul (Victoria)” was established along the Pyanj River. The Pamir volost became part of the Osh district of the Fergana region, the Wakhan ridge on Russian maps received the designation of the ridge of Emperor Nicholas II.

The first major international act of the emperor was the Triple Intervention - a simultaneous (April 11 (23) 1895), on the initiative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, presentation (together with Germany and France) of demands for Japan to reconsider the terms of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty with China, renouncing claims to the Liaodong Peninsula .

The first public appearance of the Emperor in St. Petersburg was his speech, delivered on January 17 (29), 1895 in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace before deputations of the nobility, zemstvos and cities who arrived “to express loyal feelings to Their Majesties and bring congratulations on the marriage.” The delivered text of the speech (the speech was written in advance, but the emperor pronounced it only from time to time looking at the paper) read: “I know that recently in some zemstvo meetings the voices of people who were carried away by meaningless dreams about the participation of zemstvo representatives in the affairs of internal government have been heard. Let everyone know that, devoting all my strength to the good of the people, I will protect the beginning of autocracy as firmly and unswervingly as my unforgettable, late parent guarded it.”.

The coronation of the emperor and his wife took place on May 14 (26), 1896. The celebration resulted in mass casualties on the Khodynskoye field, the incident is known as Khodynka.

The Khodynka disaster, also known as the mass stampede, occurred in the early morning of May 18 (30), 1896 on the Khodynka field (northwestern part of Moscow, the beginning of modern Leningradsky Prospekt) on the outskirts of Moscow during the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II on May 14 (26). . 1,379 people died in it and more than 900 were maimed. Most of the corpses (except for those identified immediately on the spot and handed over for burial in their parishes) were collected at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, where their identification and burial took place. In 1896, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, at the mass grave, a monument was erected to the victims of the stampede on Khodynskoye Field, designed by the architect I. A. Ivanov-Shits, with the date of the tragedy stamped on it: “May 18, 1896.”

By the time of his arrival in Britain in September 1896, there had been a sharp deterioration in relations between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, associated with the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and a simultaneous rapprochement between St. Petersburg and Constantinople.

While visiting Queen Victoria in Balmoral, Nicholas, having agreed to jointly develop a project of reforms in the Ottoman Empire, rejected the proposals made to him by the English government to remove Sultan Abdul Hamid, retain Egypt for England, and in return receive some concessions on the issue of the Straits.

Arriving in Paris in early October of the same year, Nicholas approved joint instructions to the ambassadors of Russia and France in Constantinople (which the Russian government had categorically refused until that time), approved French sentences on the Egyptian issue (which included “guarantees of neutralization of the Suez Canal” - a goal that had previously been outlined for Russian diplomacy by Foreign Minister Lobanov-Rostovsky, who died on August 30 (September 11), 1896).

The Paris agreements of the tsar, who was accompanied on the trip by N.P. Shishkin, aroused sharp objections from Sergei Witte, Lamzdorf, Ambassador Nelidov and others. However, by the end of the same year, Russian diplomacy returned to its previous course: strengthening the alliance with France, pragmatic cooperation with Germany on certain issues, freezing the Eastern Question (that is, supporting the Sultan and opposition to England’s plans in Egypt).

It was ultimately decided to abandon the plan for landing Russian troops on the Bosphorus (under a certain scenario) approved at a meeting of ministers on December 5 (17), 1896, chaired by the Tsar. In March 1897, Russian troops took part in the international peacekeeping operation in Crete after the Greco-Turkish War.

During 1897, 3 heads of state arrived in St. Petersburg to pay a visit to the Russian Emperor: Franz Joseph, Wilhelm II, and French President Felix Faure. During Franz Josef's visit, an agreement was concluded between Russia and Austria for 10 years.

The Manifesto of February 3 (15), 1899 on the order of legislation in the Grand Duchy of Finland was perceived by the population of the Grand Duchy as an encroachment on its rights of autonomy and caused mass discontent and protests.

The manifesto of June 28 (July 10), 1899 (published on June 30) announced the death of the same June 28 “heir to the Tsarevich and Grand Duke George Alexandrovich” (the oath to the latter, as the heir to the throne, was previously taken along with the oath to Nicholas) and read further: “From now on, until the Lord pleases to bless us with the birth of a son, the immediate right of succession to the All-Russian throne, on the exact basis of the main State Law on Succession to the Throne, belongs to our dear brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.”

The absence in the manifesto of the words “heir to the crown prince” in the title of Mikhail Alexandrovich aroused bewilderment in court circles, which prompted the emperor to issue a personal imperial decree on July 7 of the same year, which ordered the latter to be called “sovereign heir and grand duke.”

According to the data of the first general census conducted in January 1897, the population of the Russian Empire was 125 million people. Of these, 84 million had Russian as their native language, 21% of the Russian population were literate, and 34% among people aged 10-19 years.

In January of the same year it was carried out currency reform, which established the gold standard of the ruble. Transition to the gold ruble, among other things, was a devaluation of the national currency: on imperials of the previous weight and fineness it was now written “15 rubles” - instead of 10; However, the stabilization of the ruble at the “two-thirds” rate, contrary to forecasts, was successful and without shocks.

Much attention was paid to the work issue. On June 2 (14), 1897, a law was issued on limiting working hours, which established a maximum working day limit of no more than 11.5 hours on ordinary days, and 10 hours on Saturdays and pre-holidays, or if at least part of the working day fell on night time.

In factories with more than 100 workers, free medical care was introduced, covering 70 percent of the total number of factory workers (1898). In June 1903, the Rules on Remuneration for Victims of Industrial Accidents were supremely approved, obliging the entrepreneur to pay benefits and pensions to the victim or his family in the amount of 50-66% of the victim’s maintenance.

In 1906, workers' trade unions were created in the country. The Law of June 23 (July 6), 1912 in Russia introduced compulsory insurance of workers against illnesses and accidents.

A special tax on landowners of Polish origin in the Western Region, introduced as punishment for the Polish Uprising of 1863, was abolished. By decree of June 12 (25), 1900, exile to Siberia as a punishment was abolished.

The reign of Nicholas II was a period of economic growth: in 1885-1913, the growth rate of agricultural production averaged 2%, and the growth rate of industrial production was 4.5-5% per year. Coal production in the Donbass increased from 4.8 million tons in 1894 to 24 million tons in 1913. Coal mining began in the Kuznetsk coal basin. Oil production developed in the vicinity of Baku, Grozny and Emba.

The construction of railways continued, the total length of which, amounting to 44 thousand kilometers in 1898, by 1913 exceeded 70 thousand kilometers. In terms of the total length of railways, Russia surpassed any other European country and was second only to the United States, but in terms of the provision of railways per capita, it was inferior to both the United States and the largest European countries.

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

Back in 1895, the emperor foresaw the possibility of a clash with Japan for dominance in the Far East, and therefore prepared for this struggle - both diplomatically and militarily. From the tsar's resolution on April 2 (14), 1895, at the report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, his desire for further Russian expansion in the Southeast (Korea) was clear.

On May 22 (June 3), 1896, a Russian-Chinese agreement on a military alliance against Japan was concluded in Moscow; China agreed to the construction of a railway through Northern Manchuria to Vladivostok, the construction and operation of which was provided to the Russian-Chinese Bank.

On September 8 (20), 1896, a concession agreement for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) was signed between the Chinese government and the Russian-Chinese Bank.

On March 15 (27), 1898, Russia and China signed the Russian-Chinese Convention of 1898 in Beijing, according to which Russia was granted lease use for 25 years of the ports of Port Arthur (Lushun) and Dalniy (Dalian) with adjacent territories and waters; In addition, the Chinese government agreed to extend the concession it granted to the CER Society for the construction of a railway line (South Manchurian Railway) from one of the points of the CER to Dalniy and Port Arthur.

On August 12 (24), 1898, according to the order of Nicholas II, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count M. N. Muravyov, handed a government message (circular note) to all representatives of foreign powers staying in St. Petersburg, which read, among other things: “To put a limit to continuous armaments and to find means to prevent misfortunes that threaten the whole world - this is now the highest duty for all States. Filled with this feeling, the Emperor deigned to order me to contact the Governments of states, whose Representatives are accredited to the Supreme Court, with a proposal to convene a conference to discuss this important task.”.

The Hague Peace Conferences took place in 1899 and 1907, some of whose decisions are still in effect today (in particular, the Permanent Court of Arbitration was created in The Hague). For the initiative to convene the Hague Peace Conference and their contribution to its holding, Nicholas II and the famous Russian diplomat Fyodor Fedorovich Martens were nominated in 1901 for the Nobel Peace Prize. To this day, the UN Secretariat contains a bust of Nicholas II and his Address to the powers of the world on the convening of the first Hague Conference.

In 1900, Nicholas II sent Russian troops to suppress the Yihetuan uprising together with the troops of other European powers, Japan and the United States.

Russia's lease of the Liaodong Peninsula, the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the establishment of a naval base in Port Arthur, and Russia's growing influence in Manchuria clashed with the aspirations of Japan, which also laid claim to Manchuria.

On January 24 (February 6), 1904, the Japanese ambassador handed the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs V.N. Lamzdorf a note, which announced the termination of negotiations, which Japan considered “useless,” and the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia. Japan recalled its diplomatic mission from St. Petersburg and reserved the right to resort to “independent actions” as it deemed necessary to protect its interests. On the evening of January 26 (February 8), 1904, the Japanese fleet attacked the Port Arthur squadron without declaring war. The highest manifesto, given by Nicholas II on January 27 (February 9), 1904, declared war on Japan.

The border battle on the Yalu River was followed by battles at Liaoyang, the Shahe River and Sandepu. After a major battle in February - March 1905, the Russian army abandoned Mukden.

After the fall of the Port Arthur fortress, few people believed in a favorable outcome of the military campaign. Patriotic enthusiasm gave way to irritation and despondency. This situation contributed to the strengthening of anti-government agitation and critical sentiment. The emperor for a long time did not agree to admit the failure of the campaign, believing that these were only temporary setbacks. He undoubtedly wanted peace, only an honorable peace, which a strong military position could provide.

By the end of the spring of 1905, it became obvious that the possibility of changing the military situation existed only in the distant future.

The outcome of the war was decided by the sea battle of Tsushima 14-15 (28) May 1905, which ended in the almost complete destruction of the Russian fleet.

On May 23 (June 5), 1905, the emperor received, through the US Ambassador to St. Petersburg Meyer, a proposal from President T. Roosevelt for mediation to conclude peace. The answer did not take long to arrive. On May 30 (June 12), 1905, Foreign Minister V.N. Lamzdorf informed Washington in an official telegram about the acceptance of T. Roosevelt’s mediation.

The Russian delegation was headed by the Tsar's authorized representative S. Yu. Witte, and in the USA he was joined by the Russian ambassador to the USA Baron R. R. Rosen. The difficult situation of the Russian government after the Russo-Japanese War prompted German diplomacy to make another attempt in July 1905 to tear Russia away from France and conclude a Russian-German alliance: Wilhelm II invited Nicholas II to meet in July 1905 in the Finnish skerries, near the island of Bjorke. Nikolai agreed, and at the meeting signed the agreement, returning to St. Petersburg, he abandoned it, since on August 23 (September 5), 1905, a peace treaty was signed in Portsmouth by Russian representatives S.Yu. Witte and R.R. Rosen. Under the terms of the latter, Russia recognized Korea as Japan's sphere of influence, ceded to Japan Southern Sakhalin and the rights to the Liaodong Peninsula with the cities of Port Arthur and Dalniy.

American researcher of the era T. Dennett stated in 1925: “Few people now believe that Japan was deprived of the fruits of its upcoming victories. The opposite opinion prevails. Many believe that Japan was already exhausted by the end of May, and that only the conclusion of peace saved it from collapse or complete defeat in a clash with Russia.". Japan spent about 2 billion yen on the war, and its national debt increased from 600 million yen to 2.4 billion yen. The Japanese government had to pay 110 million yen annually in interest alone. Received for the war four foreign loan placed a heavy burden on the Japanese budget. In the middle of the year, Japan was forced to take out a new loan. Realizing that continuing the war due to lack of funding was becoming impossible, the Japanese government, under the guise of the “personal opinion” of War Minister Terauchi, through the American ambassador, back in March 1905, brought to the attention of T. Roosevelt the desire to end the war. The plan was to rely on US mediation, which is what ultimately happened.

Defeat in Russian-Japanese war(the first in half a century) and the subsequent suppression of the unrest of 1905-1907, subsequently aggravated by the emergence of rumors about influences, led to a decline in the authority of the emperor in ruling and intellectual circles.

Bloody Sunday and the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907.

On December 12 (25), 1904, the highest decree was given to the Senate “On plans for improving the state order,” which promised the expansion of the rights of zemstvos, insurance of workers, emancipation of foreigners and people of other faiths, and the elimination of censorship. When discussing the text of the Decree of December 12 (25), 1904, he, however, privately told Count Witte (according to the latter’s memoirs): “I will never, under any circumstances, agree to a representative form of government, because I consider it harmful for the person entrusted to me.” God of the people."

January 6 (19), 1905 (on the feast of Epiphany), during the blessing of water on the Jordan (on the ice of the Neva), in front of the Winter Palace, in the presence of the emperor and members of his family, at the very beginning of the singing of the troparion, a shot was heard from a gun, which accidentally (according to the official version) there was a charge of buckshot left after the exercises on January 4th. Most of the bullets hit the ice next to the royal pavilion and the facade of the palace, the glass of which was broken in 4 windows. In connection with the incident, the editor of the synodal publication wrote that “one cannot help but see something special” in the fact that only one policeman named “Romanov” was mortally wounded and the pole of the banner of “the nursery of our ill-fated fleet” - the banner of the naval corps - was shot through.

On January 9 (22), 1905, in St. Petersburg, on the initiative of priest Georgy Gapon, a procession of workers took place to the Winter Palace. On January 6-8, priest Gapon and a group of workers drew up a Petition on Workers' Needs addressed to the Emperor, which, along with economic ones, contained a number of political demands.

The main demand of the petition was the elimination of the power of officials and the introduction of popular representation in the form of a Constituent Assembly. When the government became aware of the political content of the petition, it was decided not to allow workers to approach the Winter Palace, and, if necessary, to detain them by force. On the evening of January 8, the Minister of Internal Affairs P. D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky notified the emperor of the measures taken. Contrary to popular belief, Nicholas II did not give the order to shoot, but only approved the measures proposed by the head of government.

On January 9 (22), 1905, columns of workers led by priest Gapon moved from different parts of the city to the Winter Palace. Electrified by fanatical propaganda, the workers stubbornly pressed toward the city center, despite warnings and even cavalry attacks. To prevent a crowd of 150,000 from gathering in the city center, the troops were forced to fire rifle volleys at the columns.

According to official government data, on the day of January 9 (22), 1905, 130 people were killed and 299 wounded. According to the calculations of the Soviet historian V.I. Nevsky, there were up to 200 killed and up to 800 wounded. On the evening of January 9 (22), 1905, Nicholas II wrote in his diary: "Hard day! Serious riots occurred in St. Petersburg as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places in the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and difficult!”.

The events of January 9 (22), 1905 became a turning point in Russian history and marked the beginning of the First Russian Revolution. The liberal and revolutionary opposition placed all the blame for the events on Emperor Nicholas.

Priest Gapon, who fled from police persecution, wrote an appeal on the evening of January 9 (22), 1905, in which he called on the workers for an armed uprising and the overthrow of the dynasty.

On February 4 (17), 1905, in the Moscow Kremlin, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who professed extreme right-wing political views and had a certain influence on his nephew, was killed by a terrorist bomb.

On April 17 (30), 1905, a decree “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance” was issued, which abolished a number of religious restrictions, in particular in relation to “schismatics” (Old Believers).

Strikes continued in the country, unrest began on the outskirts of the empire: in Courland, the Forest Brothers began to massacre local German landowners, and the Armenian-Tatar massacre began in the Caucasus.

Revolutionaries and separatists received support with money and weapons from England and Japan. Thus, in the summer of 1905, the English steamer John Grafton, which ran aground, was detained in the Baltic Sea, carrying several thousand rifles for Finnish separatists and revolutionary militants. There were several uprisings in the navy and in various cities. The largest was the December uprising in Moscow. At the same time, Socialist Revolutionary and anarchist individual terror gained great momentum. In just a couple of years, revolutionaries killed thousands of officials, officers and police officers - in 1906 alone, 768 were killed and 820 representatives and agents of the government were wounded.

The second half of 1905 was marked by numerous unrest in universities and theological seminaries: due to the unrest, almost 50 secondary theological educational institutions were closed. The adoption of a temporary law on university autonomy on August 27 (September 9), 1905, caused a general strike of students and stirred up teachers at universities and theological academies. Opposition parties took advantage of the expansion of freedoms to intensify attacks on the autocracy in the press.

On August 6 (19), 1905, a manifesto was signed on the establishment of the State Duma (“as a legislative advisory institution, which is provided with the preliminary development and discussion of legislative proposals and consideration of the list of state revenues and expenses” - the Bulygin Duma) and the law on State Duma and regulations on elections to the Duma.

But the revolution, which was gaining strength, overstepped the acts of August 6: in October, an all-Russian political strike began, over 2 million people went on strike. On the evening of October 17 (30), 1905, Nikolai, after psychologically difficult hesitations, decided to sign a manifesto, which commanded, among other things: "1. Grant to the population the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and unions... 3. Establish as an unshakable rule that no law can take effect without the approval of the State Duma and that those chosen by the people are guaranteed the opportunity to truly participation in monitoring the regularity of actions of the authorities assigned to us".

On April 23 (May 6), 1906, the Basic State Laws of the Russian Empire were approved, providing for new role Duma in the process of legislation. From the point of view of the liberal public, the manifesto marked the end of the Russian autocracy as the unlimited power of the monarch.

Three weeks after the manifesto, political prisoners were amnestied, except for those convicted of terrorism; The decree of November 24 (December 7), 1905 abolished preliminary general and spiritual censorship for time-based (periodical) publications published in the cities of the empire (April 26 (May 9), 1906, all censorship was abolished).

After the publication of the manifestos, the strikes subsided. The armed forces (except for the navy, where unrest took place) remained faithful to the oath. An extreme right monarchist public organization, the Union of the Russian People, arose and was secretly supported by Nicholas.

From the First Russian Revolution to the First World War

On May 27 - 28 (June 10), 1908, a meeting between the British King Edward VII and the Tsar took place - on the roadstead in the harbor of Revel, the Tsar accepted from the King the uniform of the admiral of the British fleet. The Revel meeting of the monarchs was interpreted in Berlin as a step towards the formation of an anti-German coalition - despite the fact that Nicholas was a staunch opponent of rapprochement with England against Germany.

The agreement concluded between Russia and Germany on August 6 (19), 1911 (Potsdam Agreement) did not change the general vector of the involvement of Russia and Germany in opposing military-political alliances.

On June 17 (30), 1910, the law on the procedure for issuing laws relating to the Principality of Finland, known as the law on the procedure for general imperial legislation, was approved by the State Council and the State Duma.

The Russian contingent, which had been stationed there in Persia since 1909 due to the unstable political situation, was reinforced in 1911.

In 1912, Mongolia became a de facto protectorate of Russia, gaining independence from China as a result of the revolution that took place there. After this revolution in 1912-1913, Tuvan noyons (ambyn-noyon Kombu-Dorzhu, Chamzy Khamby Lama, noyon Daa-ho.shuna Buyan-Badyrgy and others) several times appealed to the tsarist government with a request to accept Tuva under the protectorate of the Russian Empire. On April 4 (17), 1914, a resolution on the report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs established a Russian protectorate over the Uriankhai region: the region was included in the Yenisei province with the transfer of political and diplomatic affairs in Tuva to the Irkutsk Governor-General.

In connection with the Balkan War, the behavior of Austria-Hungary became increasingly defiant towards Russia, and in connection with this, in November 1912, at a meeting with the emperor, the issue of mobilizing troops of three Russian military districts was considered. Minister of War V. Sukhomlinov advocated this measure, but Prime Minister V. Kokovtsov managed to convince the emperor not to make such a decision, which threatened to drag Russia into the war.

After the actual transition of the Turkish army under German command (German General Liman von Sanders at the end of 1913 took over the post of chief inspector of the Turkish army), the question of the inevitability of war with Germany was raised in Sazonov’s note to the emperor dated December 23, 1913 (January 5, 1914), Sazonov’s note was also discussed at the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

In 1913, a wide celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty took place: the imperial family traveled to Moscow, from there to Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, and then along the Volga to Kostroma, where in the Ipatiev Monastery on March 14 (24), 1613, the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail Fedorovich, was called to the throne. In January 1914, the solemn consecration of the Fedorov Cathedral, erected to commemorate the anniversary of the dynasty, took place in St. Petersburg.

The first two State Dumas were unable to conduct regular legislative work: the contradictions between the deputies, on the one hand, and the emperor, on the other, were insurmountable. So, immediately after the opening, in a response to Nicholas II’s speech from the throne, the left Duma members demanded the liquidation of the State Council (the upper house of parliament) and the transfer of monastery and state-owned lands to the peasants. On May 19 (June 1), 1906, 104 deputies of the Labor Group put forward a land reform project (project 104), the content of which was the confiscation of landowners' lands and the nationalization of all land.

The Duma of the first convocation was dissolved by the emperor by a personal decree to the Senate of July 8 (21), 1906 (published on Sunday, July 9), which set the time for convening the newly elected Duma on February 20 (March 5), 1907. The subsequent highest manifesto of July 9 explained the reasons, among which were: “Those elected from the population, instead of working on legislative construction, deviated into an area that did not belong to them and turned to investigating the actions of the local authorities appointed by us, to pointing out to Us the imperfections of the Fundamental Laws, changes to which may to be undertaken only by our royal will, and to actions that are clearly illegal, as an appeal on behalf of the Duma to the population.” By decree of July 10 of the same year, the sessions of the State Council were suspended.

Simultaneously with the dissolution of the Duma, I. L. Goremykin was appointed to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Stolypin's agricultural policy, successful suppression of the unrest, and bright speeches in the Second Duma made him the idol of some right-wingers.

Stolypin did not intend to destroy the Duma, but to change the composition of the Duma. The reason for the dissolution was the actions of the Social Democrats: on May 5, at the apartment of a Duma member from the RSDLP Ozol, the police discovered a meeting of 35 Social Democrats and about 30 soldiers of the St. Petersburg garrison. In addition, the police discovered various propaganda materials calling for the violent overthrow of the state system, various orders from soldiers of military units and fake passports.

On June 1, Stolypin and the chairman of the St. Petersburg Judicial Chamber demanded that the Duma remove the entire Social Democratic faction from Duma meetings and lift immunity from 16 members of the RSDLP. The Duma responded to the government's demands with a refusal; the result of the confrontation was the manifesto of Nicholas II on the dissolution of the Second Duma, published on June 3 (16), 1907, along with the Regulations on elections to the Duma, that is, a new electoral law. The manifesto also indicated the date for the opening of the new Duma - November 1 (14), 1907. The act of June 3, 1907 in Soviet historiography was called the “June Third Coup”, since it contradicted the manifesto of October 17, 1905, according to which no new law could be adopted without the approval of the State Duma.

Since 1907, the so-called "Stolypin" agrarian reform . The main direction of the reform was to assign lands, previously in the collective ownership of the rural community, to peasant owners. The state also provided extensive assistance to peasants in purchasing landowners' lands (through lending from the Peasant Land Bank) and subsidized agronomic assistance. When carrying out the reform, much attention was paid to the fight against striping (a phenomenon in which a peasant cultivated many small strips of land in different fields), and the allocation of plots to peasants “in one place” (cuts, farmsteads) was encouraged, which led to a significant increase in the efficiency of the economy.

The reform, which required a huge amount of land management work, unfolded rather slowly. Before the February Revolution, no more than 20% of communal lands were assigned to peasant ownership. The results of the reform, obviously noticeable and positive, did not have time to fully manifest themselves.

In 1913, Russia (excluding the Vistlensky provinces) was in first place in the world in the production of rye, barley and oats, in third (after Canada and the USA) in wheat production, in fourth (after France, Germany and Austria-Hungary) in production potatoes. Russia has become the main exporter of agricultural products, accounting for 2/5 of all world agricultural exports. Grain yield was 3 times lower than in England or Germany, potato yield was 2 times lower.

The military reforms of 1905-1912 were carried out after the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which revealed serious shortcomings in the central administration, organization, recruitment system, combat training and technical equipment of the army.

In the first period of military reforms (1905-1908), the highest military administration was decentralized (the Main Directorate of the General Staff, independent of the War Ministry, was established, the State Defense Council was created, inspector generals were subordinate directly to the emperor), the terms of active service were reduced (in the infantry and field artillery from 5 to 3 years, in other branches of the military from 5 to 4 years, in the navy from 7 to 5 years), the officer corps was rejuvenated, the life of soldiers and sailors was improved (food and clothing allowances) and the financial situation of officers and long-term servicemen.

In the second period (1909-1912), the centralization of senior management was carried out (the Main Directorate of the General Staff was included in the Ministry of War, the Council of State Defense was abolished, inspector generals were subordinate to the Minister of War). Due to the militarily weak reserve and fortress troops, the field troops were strengthened (the number of army corps increased from 31 to 37), a reserve was created in the field units, which during mobilization was allocated for the deployment of secondary ones (including field artillery, engineering and railway troops, communications units) , machine gun teams were created in regiments and corps air detachments, cadet schools were transformed into military schools that received new programs, new regulations and instructions were introduced.

In 1910, the Imperial Air Force was created.

Nicholas II. A thwarted triumph

World War I

Nicholas II made efforts to prevent war in all the pre-war years, and in the last days before its outbreak, when (July 15 (28), 1914) Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and began bombing Belgrade. On July 16 (29), 1914, Nicholas II sent a telegram to Wilhelm II with a proposal to “transfer the Austro-Serbian issue to the Hague Conference” (to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague). Wilhelm II did not respond to this telegram.

At the beginning of WWII, opposition parties in both the Entente countries and Russia (including the Social Democrats) considered Germany the aggressor. in the fall of 1914 he wrote that it was Germany that started the war at a time convenient for it.

On July 20 (August 2), 1914, the emperor gave and by the evening of the same day published a manifesto on the war, as well as a personal highest decree, in which he, “not recognizing it possible, for reasons of a national nature, to now become the head of our land and sea forces intended for military operations,” ordered Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to be Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

By decrees of July 24 (August 6), 1914, the sessions of the State Council and the Duma were interrupted from July 26.

On July 26 (August 8), 1914, a manifesto on the war with Austria was published. On the same day, the highest reception of members of the State Council and the Duma took place: the emperor arrived at the Winter Palace on a yacht together with Nikolai Nikolaevich and, entering the Nicholas Hall, addressed those gathered with the following words: “Germany and then Austria declared war on Russia. That huge upsurge of patriotic feelings of love for the Motherland and devotion to the throne, which swept like a hurricane across our entire land, serves in my eyes and, I think, in yours, as a guarantee that our great Mother Russia will bring the war sent by the Lord God to the desired end . ...I am confident that each and every one of you in your place will help me endure the test sent down to me and that everyone, starting with me, will fulfill their duty to the end. Great is the God of the Russian Land!”. At the conclusion of his response speech, the Chairman of the Duma, Chamberlain M.V. Rodzianko, said: “Without differences of opinions, views and beliefs, the State Duma, on behalf of the Russian Land, calmly and firmly says to its Tsar: “Be brave, Sovereign, the Russian people are with you and, firmly trusting in the mercy of God, will not stop at any sacrifice until the enemy is broken.” and the dignity of the Motherland will not be protected".

During the period of Nikolai Nikolaevich's command, the tsar traveled to Headquarters several times for meetings with the command (September 21 - 23, October 22 - 24, November 18 - 20). In November 1914 he also traveled to the south of Russia and the Caucasian Front.

At the beginning of June 1915, the situation on the fronts deteriorated sharply: Przemysl, a fortress city captured with huge losses in March, was surrendered. At the end of June Lvov was abandoned. All military acquisitions were lost, and the Russian Empire began losing its own territory. In July, Warsaw, all of Poland and part of Lithuania were surrendered; the enemy continued to advance. The public started talking about the government's inability to cope with the situation.

Both from public organizations, the State Duma, and from other groups, even many grand dukes, they started talking about creating a “Ministry of Public Trust.”

At the beginning of 1915, troops at the front began to experience a great need for weapons and ammunition. The need for a complete restructuring of the economy in accordance with the demands of the war became clear. On August 17 (30), 1915, Nicholas II approved documents on the formation of four Special Meetings: on defense, fuel, food and transportation. These meetings, consisting of government representatives, private industrialists, members of the State Duma and the State Council and headed by the relevant ministers, were supposed to unite the efforts of the government, private industry and the public in mobilizing industry for military needs. The most important of these was the Special Conference on Defense.

On May 9 (22), 1916, All-Russian Emperor Nicholas II, accompanied by his family, General Brusilov and others, reviewed troops in the Bessarabia province in the city of Bendery and visited the infirmary located in the city Auditorium.

Along with the creation of special meetings, in 1915 Military-Industrial Committees began to emerge - public organizations of the bourgeoisie that were semi-oppositional in nature.

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich’s overestimation of his abilities ultimately led to a number of major military mistakes, and attempts to deflect the corresponding accusations from himself led to the fanning of Germanophobia and spy mania. One of these most significant episodes was the case of Lieutenant Colonel Myasoedov, which ended with the execution of an innocent man, where Nikolai Nikolaevich played the first violin along with A.I. Guchkov. The front commander, due to the disagreement of the judges, did not approve the sentence, but Myasoedov’s fate was decided by the resolution of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich: “Hang him anyway!” This case, in which the Grand Duke played the first role, led to an increase in clearly oriented suspicion of society and played a role, among other things, in the May 1915 German pogrom in Moscow.

Failures at the front continued: on July 22, Warsaw and Kovno were surrendered, the fortifications of Brest were blown up, the Germans were approaching the Western Dvina, and the evacuation of Riga began. In such conditions, Nicholas II decided to remove the Grand Duke, who could not cope, and himself stand at the head of the Russian army.

On August 23 (September 5), 1915, Nicholas II assumed the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, replacing Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich in this post, who was appointed commander of the Caucasian Front. M.V. Alekseev was appointed chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

The soldiers of the Russian army greeted Nicholas's decision to take up the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief without enthusiasm. At the same time, the German command was satisfied with the resignation of Prince Nikolai Nikolaevich from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief - they considered him a tough and skillful opponent. A number of his strategic ideas were assessed by Erich Ludendorff as extremely bold and brilliant.

During the Sventsyansky breakthrough on August 9 (22), 1915 - September 19 (October 2), 1915, German troops were defeated and their offensive was stopped. The parties switched to positional warfare: the brilliant Russian counterattacks that followed in the Vilno-Molodechno region and the events that followed made it possible, after the successful September operation, to prepare for a new stage of the war, no longer fearing an enemy offensive. Work began to begin throughout Russia on the formation and training of new troops. Industry was rapidly producing ammunition and military equipment. This speed of work became possible due to the emerging confidence that the enemy’s advance had been stopped. By the spring of 1917, new armies were created, provided with equipment and ammunition better than ever before during the entire war.

The autumn conscription of 1916 put 13 million people under arms, and losses in the war exceeded 2 million.

During 1916, Nicholas II replaced four chairmen of the Council of Ministers (I. L. Goremykin, B. V. Sturmer, A. F. Trepov and Prince N. D. Golitsyn), four ministers of internal affairs (A. N. Khvostov, B. V. Sturmer, A. A. Khvostov and A. D. Protopopov), three foreign ministers (S. D. Sazonov, B. V. Sturmer and N. N. Pokrovsky), two military ministers (A. A. Polivanov, D.S. Shuvaev) and three ministers of justice (A.A. Khvostov, A.A. Makarov and N.A. Dobrovolsky).

By January 1 (14), 1917, changes had also occurred in the State Council. Nicholas expelled 17 members and appointed new ones.

On January 19 (February 1), 1917, a meeting of high-ranking representatives of the Allied powers opened in Petrograd, which went down in history as the Petrograd Conference: from Russia’s allies it was attended by delegates from Great Britain, France and Italy, who also visited Moscow and the front, had meetings with politicians of different political orientations, with the leaders of the Duma factions. The latter unanimously told the head of the British delegation about an imminent revolution - either from below or from above (in the form of a palace coup).

Nicholas II, hoping for an improvement in the situation in the country if the spring offensive of 1917 was successful, as agreed upon at the Petrograd Conference, did not intend to conclude a separate peace with the enemy - he saw the victorious end of the war as the most important means strengthening the throne. Hints that Russia may begin negotiations to conclude separate peace, were a diplomatic game that forced the Entente to recognize the need to establish Russian control over the Straits.

The war, during which there was a widespread mobilization of the working-age male population, horses and massive requisition of livestock and agricultural products, had a detrimental effect on the economy, especially in the countryside. Among the politicized Petrograd society, the authorities were discredited by scandals (in particular, related to the influence of G. E. Rasputin and his henchmen - “dark forces”) and suspicions of treason. Nicholas’s declarative commitment to the idea of “autocratic” power came into sharp conflict with the liberal and leftist aspirations of a significant part of the Duma members and society.

Abdication of Nicholas II

The general testified about the mood in the army after the revolution: “As for the attitude towards the throne, as a general phenomenon, in the officer corps there was a desire to distinguish the person of the sovereign from the court filth that surrounded him, from the political mistakes and crimes of the tsarist government, which clearly and steadily led to the destruction of the country and the defeat of the army . They forgave the sovereign, they tried to justify him. As we will see below, by 1917, this attitude among a certain part of the officers was shaken, causing the phenomenon that Prince Volkonsky called a “revolution on the right,” but on purely political grounds.”.

Forces opposed to Nicholas II were preparing a coup d'etat starting in 1915. These were the leaders of various political parties represented in the Duma, and major military officers, and the top of the bourgeoisie, and even some members of the Imperial Family. It was assumed that after the abdication of Nicholas II, his minor son Alexei would ascend to the throne, and would become regent younger brother Tsar - Mikhail. During the February Revolution, this plan began to be realized.

Since December 1916, a “coup” in one form or another was expected in the court and political environment, the possible abdication of the emperor in favor of Tsarevich Alexei under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

On February 23 (March 8), 1917, a strike began in Petrograd. After 3 days it became universal. On the morning of February 27 (March 12), 1917, the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison revolted and joined the strikers; only the police provided resistance to the rebellion and unrest. A similar uprising took place in Moscow.

On February 25 (March 10), 1917, by decree of Nicholas II, meetings of the State Duma were stopped from February 26 (March 11) until April of the same year, which further inflamed the situation. Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko sent a number of telegrams to the emperor about the events in Petrograd.

Headquarters learned about the beginning of the revolution two days late, according to reports from General S.S. Khabalov, Minister of War Belyaev and Minister of Internal Affairs Protopopov. The first telegram announcing the beginning of the revolution was received by General Alekseev only on February 25 (March 10), 1917 at 18:08: “I report that on February 23 and 24, due to a shortage of bread, a strike broke out in many factories... 200 thousand workers... At about three o'clock in the afternoon on Znamenskaya Square, police officer Krylov was killed while dispersing the crowd. The crowd is scattered. In addition to the Petrograd garrison, five squadrons of the Ninth Reserve Cavalry Regiment from Krasnoe Selo hundred of the Leningrad Guards are taking part in suppressing the unrest. a combined Cossack regiment from Pavlovsk and five squadrons of the Guards Reserve Cavalry Regiment were called to Petrograd. No. 486. Sec. Khabalov". General Alekseev reports to Nicholas II the contents of this telegram.

At the same time, the palace commandant Voyekov reports to Nicholas II a telegram from the Minister of Internal Affairs Protopopov: "Bid. To the palace commandant. ...On February 23, a strike broke out in the capital, accompanied by street riots. The first day about 90 thousand workers went on strike, the second - up to 160 thousand, today - about 200 thousand. Street riots are expressed in demonstrative processions, some with red flags, destruction of some shops, partial cessation of tram traffic by strikers, and clashes with the police. ...the police fired several shots in the direction of the crowd, from where they fired back. ...bailiff Krylov was killed. The movement is unorganized and spontaneous. ...Moscow is calm. Ministry of Internal Affairs Protopopov. No. 179. February 25, 1917".

Having read both telegrams, Nicholas II on the evening of February 25 (March 10), 1917, ordered General S. S. Khabalov to put an end to the unrest by military force: “I command you to stop the riots in the capital tomorrow, which are unacceptable during the difficult times of the war with Germany and Austria. NICHOLAY".

On February 26 (March 11), 1917 at 17:00 a telegram from Rodzianko arrives: “The situation is serious. There is anarchy in the capital. ...There is indiscriminate shooting on the streets. Troop units shoot at each other. It is necessary to immediately entrust a person with confidence to form a new government.”. Nicholas II refuses to respond to this telegram, telling the Minister of the Imperial Household Fredericks that “again this fat man Rodzianko wrote me all sorts of nonsense, to which I won’t even answer him”.

The next telegram from Rodzianko arrives at 22:22, and also has a similar panic character.

On February 27 (March 12), 1917 at 19:22, a telegram from War Minister Belyaev arrives at Headquarters, declaring the almost complete transition of the Petrograd garrison to the side of the revolution, and demanding the sending of troops loyal to the tsar; at 19:29 he reports that the Council of Ministers has declared a state of siege in Petrograd. General Alekseev reports the contents of both telegrams to Nicholas II. The Tsar orders General N.I. Ivanov to go at the head of loyal army units to Tsarskoye Selo to ensure the safety of the imperial family, then, as Commander of the Petrograd Military District, take command of the troops that were supposed to be transferred from the front.

From 11 pm to 1 am, the Empress sends two telegrams from Tsarskoe Selo: “The revolution yesterday took on terrifying proportions... Concessions are necessary. ...Many troops went over to the side of the revolution. Alix".

At 0:55 a telegram from Khabalov arrives: “Please report to His Imperial Majesty that I could not fulfill the order to restore order in the capital. Most of the units, one after another, betrayed their duty, refusing to fight against the rebels. Other units fraternized with the rebels and turned their weapons against the troops loyal to His Majesty. Those who remained faithful to duty fought against the rebels all day, suffering heavy losses. By evening, the rebels captured most of the capital. Small units of various regiments gathered near the Winter Palace under the command of General Zankevich remain faithful to the oath, with whom I will continue to fight. Lieutenant General Khabalov".

On February 28 (March 13), 1917, at 11 am, General Ivanov alerted the Battalion of St. George's Knights of 800 people, and sent it from Mogilev to Tsarskoye Selo via Vitebsk and Dno, leaving himself at 13:00.

The battalion commander, Prince Pozharsky, announces to his officers that he will not “shoot at the people in Petrograd, even if Adjutant General Ivanov demands it.”

Chief Marshal Benkendorf telegraphs from Petrograd to Headquarters that the Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment shot its commander, and the battalion commander of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment was shot.

On February 28 (March 13), 1917 at 21:00, General Alekseev orders the Chief of Staff of the Northern Front, General Yu. N. Danilov, to send two cavalry and two infantry regiments, reinforced with machine-gun teams, to help General Ivanov. It is planned to send approximately the same second detachment from the Southwestern Front of General Brusilov as part of the Preobrazhensky, Third Rifle and Fourth Rifle regiments of the Imperial Family. Alekseev also proposes, on his own initiative, to add one cavalry division to the “punitive expedition”.

On February 28 (March 13), 1917 at 5 a.m. the tsar departed (at 4:28 a.m. the Litera B train, at 5:00 a.m. the Litera A train) for Tsarskoye Selo, but was unable to travel.

February 28, 8:25 General Khabalov sends a telegram to General Alekseev about his desperate situation, and at 9:00 - 10:00 talks with General Ivanov, stating that “At my disposal, in the Main building. Admiralty, four guards companies, five squadrons and hundreds, two batteries. Other troops went over to the side of the revolutionaries or remain, by agreement with them, neutral. Individual soldiers and gangs roam around the city, shooting at passers-by, disarming officers... All stations are in the power of the revolutionaries, strictly guarded by them... All artillery establishments are in the power of the revolutionaries.”.

At 13:30 Belyaev’s telegram is received about the final capitulation of units loyal to the Tsar in Petrograd. The king receives it at 15:00.

On the afternoon of February 28, General Alekseev tries to take control of the Ministry of Railways through a fellow (deputy) minister, General Kislyakov, but he convinces Alekseev to reverse his decision. On February 28, General Alekseev stopped all combat-ready units on the way to Petrograd with a circular telegram. His circular telegram falsely stated that the unrest in Petrograd had subsided and there was no longer any need to suppress the rebellion. Some of these units were already an hour or two away from the capital. They were all stopped.

Adjutant General I. Ivanov received Alekseev’s order already in Tsarskoye Selo.

Duma deputy Bublikov occupies the Ministry of Railways, arresting its minister, and prohibits the movement of military trains for 250 miles around Petrograd. At 21:27, a message was received in Likhoslavl about Bublikov’s orders to the railway workers.

On February 28 at 20:00 the uprising of the Tsarskoye Selo garrison began. The units that remain loyal continue to guard the palace.

At 3:45 am the train approaches Malaya Vishera. There they reported that the path ahead was captured by rebel soldiers, and at the Lyuban station there were two revolutionary companies with machine guns. Subsequently, it turns out that in fact, at the Lyuban station, the rebel soldiers plundered the buffet, but did not intend to arrest the tsar.

At 4:50 a.m. on March 1 (14), 1917, the Tsar orders to turn back to Bologoye (where they arrived at 9:00 a.m. on March 1), and from there to Pskov.

According to some evidence, on March 1 at 16:00 in Petrograd, the cousin of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, went over to the side of the revolution, leading the Guards naval crew to the Tauride Palace. Subsequently, monarchists declared this slander.

On March 1 (14), 1917, General Ivanov arrives in Tsarskoye Selo and receives information that the Tsarskoye Selo guards company has rebelled and left for Petrograd without permission. Also, rebel units were approaching Tsarskoe Selo: a heavy division and one guards battalion of the reserve regiment. General Ivanov leaves Tsarskoe Selo for Vyritsa and decides to inspect the Tarutinsky regiment transferred to him. At the Semrino station, railway workers are blocking his further movement.

On March 1 (14), 1917 at 15:00 the royal train arrives at the Dno station, at 19:05 in Pskov, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front of General N.V. Ruzsky was located. General Ruzsky, due to his political convictions, believed that the autocratic monarchy in the twentieth century was an anachronism, and did not like Nicholas II personally. When the Tsar's train arrived, the general refused to arrange the usual ceremony of welcoming the Tsar, and appeared alone and only after a few minutes.

General Alekseev, who in the absence of the Tsar at Headquarters assumed the responsibilities of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, on February 28 receives a report from General Khabalov that he has only 1,100 people left in the loyal units. Having learned about the beginning of unrest in Moscow, on March 1 at 15:58 he telegraphed to the Tsar that “The revolution, and the latter is inevitable, once unrest begins in the rear, marks the shameful end of the war with all the grave consequences for Russia. The army is too closely connected with the life of the rear, and we can say with confidence that unrest in the rear will cause the same in the army. It is impossible to demand from the army that it fight calmly when there is a revolution in the rear. The current young composition of the army and the officer corps, among which a huge percentage are called up from the reserves and promoted to officers from higher educational institutions, does not give any reason to believe that the army will not react to what will happen in Russia.”.

After receiving this telegram, Nicholas II received General N.V. Ruzsky, who spoke in favor of establishing in Russia a government responsible to the Duma. At 22:20 General Alekseev sends Nicholas II a draft of the proposed manifesto on the establishment of a responsible government. At 17:00 - 18:00 telegrams about the uprising in Kronstadt arrive at Headquarters.

On March 2 (15), 1917, at one in the morning, Nicholas II telegraphed General Ivanov “I ask you not to take any measures until my arrival and report to me,” and instructs Ruzsky to inform Alekseev and Rodzianko that he agrees to the formation of a responsible government. Then Nicholas II goes into the sleeping car, but falls asleep only at 5:15, having sent a telegram to General Alekseev: “You can announce the presented manifesto, marking it Pskov. NICHOLAY."

On March 2, at 3:30 a.m., Ruzsky contacted M.V. Rodzianko, and during a four-hour conversation he became familiar with the tense situation that had developed by that time in Petrograd.

Having received a recording of Ruzsky’s conversation with M.V. Rodzianko, Alekseev on March 2 at 9:00 ordered General Lukomsky to contact Pskov and immediately wake up the Tsar, to which he received the answer that the Tsar had only recently fallen asleep, and that Ruzsky’s report was scheduled for 10:00 .

At 10:45 Ruzsky began his report by informing Nicholas II of his conversation with Rodzianko. At this time, Ruzsky received the text of a telegram sent by Alekseev to the front commanders on the question of the desirability of abdication, and read it to the tsar.

On March 2, 14:00 - 14:30, responses from the front commanders began to arrive. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich stated that “as a loyal subject, I consider it the duty of the oath and the spirit of the oath to kneel and beg the sovereign to renounce the crown in order to save Russia and the dynasty.” Also in favor of abdication were Generals A. E. Evert (Western Front), A. A. Brusilov (South-Western Front), V. V. Sakharov (Romanian Front), Commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral A. I. Nepenin, and General Sakharov called the Provisional Committee of the State Duma “a bandit group of people who took advantage of a convenient moment,” but “while sobbing, I have to say that abdication is the most painless way out,” and General Evert noted that “you cannot count on the army in its current composition to suppress unrest... I am taking all measures to ensure that information about the current state of affairs in the capitals does not penetrate the army in order to protect it from undoubted unrest. There are no means to stop the revolution in the capitals.” The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, did not send an answer.

Between 14:00 and 15:00, Ruzsky entered the tsar, accompanied by generals Danilov Yu.N. and Savich, taking with him the texts of the telegrams. Nicholas II asked the generals to speak out. They all spoke in favor of renunciation.

Around 15:00 on March 2 the tsar decided to abdicate in favor of his son during the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

At this time, Ruzsky was informed that representatives of the State Duma A.I. Guchkov and V.V. Shulgin had moved to Pskov. At 15:10 this was reported to Nicholas II. Representatives of the Duma arrive on the royal train at 21:45. Guchkov informed Nicholas II that there was a danger of unrest spreading at the front, and that the troops of the Petrograd garrison went over to the side of the rebels immediately, and, according to Guchkov, the remnants of loyal troops in Tsarskoye Selo went over to the side of the revolution. After listening to him, the king reports that he has already decided to renounce for himself and his son.

March 2 (15), 1917 at 23 hours 40 minutes (in the document the time of signing was indicated by the tsar as 15 hours - the time of decision making) Nikolai handed over to Guchkov and Shulgin Manifesto of renunciation, which read, in part: “We command our brother to rule over the affairs of the state in complete and inviolable unity with the representatives of the people in legislative institutions, on those principles that will be established by them, taking an inviolable oath to that effect.”.

Guchkov and Shulgin also demanded that Nicholas II sign two decrees: on the appointment of Prince G. E. Lvov as head of government and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich as supreme commander-in-chief, the former emperor signed the decrees, indicating in them the time of 14 hours.

After this, Nikolai writes in his diary: “In the morning Ruzsky came and read his long conversation on the phone with Rodzianko. According to him, the situation in Petrograd is such that now the ministry from the Duma is seemingly powerless to do anything, since the social-democratic party, represented by the working committee, is fighting it. My renunciation is needed. Ruzsky conveyed this conversation to headquarters, and Alekseev to all commanders in chief. By 2½ o'clock answers came from everyone. The point is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front calm, you need to decide to take this step. I agreed. Headquarters sent a draft manifesto. In the evening, Guchkov and Shulgin arrived from Petrograd, with whom I talked and gave them the signed and revised manifesto. At one o'clock in the morning I left Pskov with a heavy feeling of what I had experienced. There is treason, cowardice, and deceit all around.”.

Guchkov and Shulgin leave for Petrograd on March 3 (16), 1917 at three o’clock in the morning, having previously informed the government by telegraph the text of the three accepted documents. At 6 am, the temporary committee of the State Duma contacted Grand Duke Mikhail, informing him of the abdication of the former emperor in his favor.

During a meeting on the morning of March 3 (16), 1917 with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Rodzianko, he declared that if he accepted the throne, a new uprising would immediately break out, and consideration of the issue of the monarchy should be transferred to the Constituent Assembly. He is supported by Kerensky, opposed by Miliukov, who stated that “the government alone without a monarch... is a fragile boat that can sink in the ocean of popular unrest; “Under such conditions, the country may be in danger of losing all consciousness of statehood.” After listening to the Duma representatives, the Grand Duke demanded a private conversation with Rodzianko, and asked whether the Duma could guarantee his personal safety. Having heard that he cannot, Grand Duke Mikhail signed a manifesto renouncing the throne.

On March 3 (16), 1917, Nicholas II, having learned about the refusal of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich from the throne, wrote in his diary: “It turns out that Misha renounced. His manifesto ends with a four-tail for elections in 6 months of the Constituent Assembly. God knows who convinced him to sign such disgusting stuff! In Petrograd, the unrest stopped - if only it continued like this.". He draws up a second version of the renunciation manifesto, again in favor of his son. Alekseev took the telegram, but did not send it. It was too late: two manifestos had already been announced to the country and the army. Alekseev, “so as not to confuse minds,” did not show this telegram to anyone, kept it in his wallet and handed it to me at the end of May, leaving the high command.

March 4 (17), 1917, the commander of the Guards Cavalry Corps sends a telegram to Headquarters to the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief “We have received information about major events. I ask you not to refuse to place at the feet of His Majesty the boundless devotion of the Guards Cavalry and the willingness to die for your beloved Monarch. Khan of Nakhichevan". In a reply telegram, Nikolai said: “I never doubted the feelings of the Guards cavalry. I ask you to submit to the Provisional Government. Nikolay". According to other sources, this telegram was sent on March 3, and General Alekseev never handed it over to Nikolai. There is also a version that this telegram was sent without the knowledge of the Khan of Nakhichevan by his chief of staff, General Baron Wieneken. According to the opposite version, the telegram, on the contrary, was sent by the Khan of Nakhichevan after a meeting with the commanders of the corps units.

Another well-known telegram of support was sent by the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Corps of the Romanian Front, General F. A. Keller: “The Third Cavalry Corps does not believe that You, Sovereign, voluntarily abdicated the throne. Command, King, we will come and protect You.". It is not known whether this telegram reached the Tsar, but it reached the commander of the Romanian Front, who ordered Keller to surrender command of the corps under threat of being charged with treason.

On March 8 (21), 1917, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet, when it became known about the tsar’s plans to leave for England, decided to arrest the tsar and his family, confiscate property and deprive them of civil rights. The new commander of the Petrograd district, General L. G. Kornilov, arrives in Tsarskoye Selo, arresting the empress and setting up guards, including to protect the tsar from the rebellious Tsarskoye Selo garrison.

On March 8 (21), 1917, the tsar in Mogilev said goodbye to the army, and issued a farewell order to the troops, in which he bequeathed to “fight until victory” and “obey the Provisional Government.” General Alekseev transmitted this order to Petrograd, but the Provisional Government, under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet, refused to publish it:

“For the last time I appeal to you, my beloved troops. After my abdication for myself and for my son from the Russian throne, power was transferred to the Provisional Government, which arose at the initiative of the State Duma. May God help him lead Russia along the path of glory and prosperity. May God help you, valiant troops, to defend Russia from the evil enemy. For two and a half years, you have carried out heavy combat service every hour, a lot of blood has been shed, a lot of effort has been made, and the hour is already approaching when Russia, bound with its valiant allies by one common desire for victory, will break the last effort of the enemy. This unprecedented war must be brought to complete victory.

Whoever thinks about peace, who desires it, is a traitor to the Fatherland, its traitor. I know that every honest warrior thinks like this. Fulfill your duty, defend our valiant Great Motherland, obey the Provisional Government, listen to your superiors, remember that any weakening of the order of service only plays into the hands of the enemy.

I firmly believe that the boundless love for our Great Motherland has not faded in your hearts. May the Lord God bless you and may the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George lead you to victory.

Before Nicholas leaves Mogilev, the Duma representative at Headquarters tells him that he “must consider himself as if under arrest.”

Execution of Nicholas II and the royal family

From March 9 (22), 1917 to August 1 (14), 1917, Nicholas II, his wife and children lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo.

At the end of March, the Minister of the Provisional Government P. N. Milyukov tried to send Nicholas and his family to England, in the care of George V, for which the preliminary consent of the British side was obtained. But in April, due to the unstable internal political situation in England itself, the king chose to abandon such a plan - according to some evidence, against the advice of Prime Minister Lloyd George. However, in 2006, some documents became known indicating that until May 1918, the MI 1 unit of the British Military Intelligence Agency was preparing for an operation to rescue the Romanovs, which was never brought to the stage of practical implementation.

In view of the strengthening of the revolutionary movement and anarchy in Petrograd, the Provisional Government, fearing for the lives of the prisoners, decided to transfer them deep into Russia, to Tobolsk, they were allowed to take the necessary furniture and personal belongings from the palace, and also offer service personnel, if desired, to voluntarily accompany them to the place of the new placement and further service. On the eve of departure, the head of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, arrived and brought with him the brother of the former emperor, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail Alexandrovich was exiled to Perm, where on the night of June 13, 1918 he was killed by local Bolshevik authorities.

On August 1 (14), 1917, at 6:10 a.m., a train with members of the imperial family and servants under the sign “Japanese Red Cross Mission” departed from Tsarskoye Selo from the Aleksandrovskaya railway station.

On August 4 (17), 1917, the train arrived in Tyumen, then those arrested on the ships “Rus”, “Kormilets” and “Tyumen” were transported along the river to Tobolsk. The Romanov family settled in the governor's house, which was specially renovated for their arrival.

The family was allowed to walk across the street and boulevard to services at the Church of the Annunciation. The security regime here was much lighter than in Tsarskoe Selo. The family led a calm, measured life.

At the beginning of April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) authorized the transfer of the Romanovs to Moscow for the purpose of their trial. At the end of April 1918, the prisoners were transported to Yekaterinburg, where a private house was requisitioned to house the Romanovs. Five service personnel lived with them here: doctor Botkin, footman Trupp, room girl Demidova, cook Kharitonov and cook Sednev.

Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, Doctor Botkin and three servants (except for the cook Sednev) were killed with bladed weapons and firearms in the “House of Special Purpose” - Ipatiev’s mansion in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918.

Since the 1920s, in the Russian diaspora, on the initiative of the Union of Devotees of the Memory of Emperor Nicholas II, regular funeral commemorations of Emperor Nicholas II were carried out three times a year (on his birthday, namesake day and on the anniversary of his assassination), but his veneration as a saint began to spread after the end of Second World War.

On October 19 (November 1), 1981, Emperor Nicholas and his family were canonized by the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR), which then had no church communion with the Moscow Patriarchate in the USSR.

Decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church dated August 14, 2000: “To glorify the royal family as passion-bearers in the host of new martyrs and confessors of Russia: Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexy, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia” (their memory - 4 July according to the Julian calendar).

The act of canonization was received ambiguously by Russian society: opponents of canonization claim that the proclamation of Nicholas II as a saint was of a political nature. On the other hand, in part of the Orthodox community there are ideas circulating that glorifying the king as a passion-bearer is not enough, and he is a “king-redeemer.” The ideas were condemned by Alexy II as blasphemous, since “there is only one redemptive feat - that of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In 2003, in Yekaterinburg, on the site of the demolished house of engineer N. N. Ipatiev, where Nicholas II and his family were shot, the Church on the Blood was built in the name of All Saints who shone in the Russian land, in front of which a monument to the family was erected Nicholas II.

In many cities, the construction of churches began in honor of the holy Royal Passion-Bearers.

In December 2005, a representative of the head of the “Russian Imperial House” Maria Vladimirovna Romanova sent to the Russian Prosecutor’s Office an application for the rehabilitation of the executed former Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family as victims of political repression. According to the statement, after a number of refusals to satisfy, on October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family (despite the opinion of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which stated in court that the requirements for rehabilitation do not comply with the provisions of the law due to that these persons were not arrested for political reasons, and no judicial decision was made to execute them).

On October 30 of the same 2008, it was reported that the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate 52 people from the entourage of Emperor Nicholas II and his family.

In January 2009, the Investigative Committee completed a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the death and burial of the family of Nicholas II. The investigation was closed “due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution and the death of those who committed premeditated murder.” A representative of M.V. Romanova, who calls herself the head of the Russian Imperial House, stated in 2009 that “Maria Vladimirovna fully shares on this issue the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has not found sufficient grounds for recognizing the “Ekaterinburg remains” as belonging to members of the royal family.” Other representatives of the Romanovs, led by N.R. Romanov, took a different position: the latter, in particular, took part in the burial of the remains in July 1998, saying: “We came to close the era.”

On September 23, 2015, the remains of Nicholas II and his wife were exhumed for investigative actions as part of establishing the identities of the remains of their children, Alexei and Maria.

Nicholas II in cinema

Several feature films have been made about Nicholas II and his family, among which are “Agony” (1981), the English-American film “Nicholas and Alexandra” (Nicholas and Alexandra, 1971) and two Russian films “The Regicide” (1991) and “ Romanovs. The Crowned Family" (2000).

Hollywood made several films about the supposedly saved daughter of the Tsar Anastasia, “Anastasia” (Anastasia, 1956) and “Anastasia, or the Mystery of Anna” (Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, USA, 1986).

Actors who played the role of Nicholas II:

1917 - Alfred Hickman - The Fall of the Romanovs (USA)
1926 - Heinz Hanus - Die Brandstifter Europas (Germany)
1956 - Vladimir Kolchin - Prologue
1961 - Vladimir Kolchin - Two Lives
1971 - Michael Jayston - Nicholas and Alexandra
1972 - - Kotsyubinsky family
1974 - Charles Kay - Fall of Eagles
1974-81 - - Agony
1975 - Yuri Demich - Trust
1986 - - Anastasia, or the mystery of Anna (Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna)
1987 - Alexander Galibin - The Life of Klim Samgin
1989 - - Eye of God
2014 - Valery Degtyar - Grigory R.
2017 - - Matilda.

Lenta.ru studies the so-called “controversial issues” of Russian history. Experts preparing a unified school textbook on the subject formulated topic No. 16 as follows: “Causes, consequences and assessment of the fall of the monarchy in Russia, the rise of the Bolsheviks to power and their victory in the Civil War.” One of the key figures in this topic is the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, who was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and canonized by the Orthodox Church at the end of the 20th century. Lenta.ru asked publicist Ivan Davydov to research the life of Nicholas II to figure out whether he could be considered a saint and how the tsar’s private life was connected with the “catastrophe of 1917.”

In Russia, the story ends badly. In the sense that it is reluctant. Our history continues to weigh on us, and sometimes on us. It seems that in Russia there is no time at all: everything is relevant. Historical characters are our contemporaries and participants in political discussions.

In the case of Nicholas II, this is quite clear: he is the last (at least for the moment) Russian Tsar, he began the terrible Russian twentieth century - and with him the empire ended. The events that defined this century and still do not want to let us go - two wars and three revolutions - are episodes of his personal biography. Some even consider the murder of Nicholas II and his family a national, unforgivable sin, the price for which is many Russian troubles. Rehabilitation, search and identification of the remains of the royal family are important political gestures of the Yeltsin era.

And since August 2000, Nicholas has been a canonized holy passion-bearer. Moreover, he is a very popular saint - just remember the “Romanovs” exhibition, held in December 2013. It turns out that the last Russian Tsar, out of spite to his murderers, is now the most alive of all the living.

Where did bears come from?

It is important to understand that for us (including those who see the last tsar as a saint) Nicholas is not at all the same person as he was for millions of his subjects, at least at the beginning of his reign.

In collections of Russian folk legends, a plot similar to Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” is repeatedly repeated. A peasant goes for firewood and finds a magic tree in the forest. The tree asks not to destroy it, promising various benefits in return. Gradually, the old man's appetites (not without prodding from his grumpy wife) grow - and in the end he declares his desire to be a king. The magic tree is horrified: is it conceivable - a king has been appointed by God, how can one encroach on such a thing? And turns the greedy couple into bears so that people are afraid of them.

So, for his subjects, and not only for illiterate peasants, the king was God’s anointed, the bearer of sacred power and a special mission. Neither revolutionary terrorists, nor revolutionary theorists, nor liberal freethinkers could seriously shake this faith. There is not even a distance, but an insurmountable gap between Nicholas II, God’s anointed, crowned in 1896, the sovereign of all Rus', and citizen Romanov, whom security officers killed in Yekaterinburg with his family and loved ones in 1918. The question of where this abyss came from is one of the most difficult in our history (which has not been particularly smooth at all). Wars, revolutions, economic growth and political terror, reforms, reaction - everything is connected in this issue. I won’t deceive - I don’t have the answer, but I have a suspicion that some small and insignificant part of the answer is hidden in the human biography of the last bearer of autocratic power.

Frivolous son of a stern father

Many portraits have survived: the last tsar lived in the era of photography and he himself loved to take photographs. But words are more interesting than dull and old pictures, and a lot has been said about the emperor, and by people who knew a lot about the arrangement of words. For example, Mayakovsky, with the pathos of an eyewitness:

And I see a landau rolling,
And in this land
Young military man sitting
In a well-groomed beard.
In front of him, like lumps,
Four daughters.
And on the backs of cobblestones, like on our coffins,
His retinue is in eagles and coats of arms.
And the bells rang
Blurred in a lady's squeak:
Hurray! Tsar Nicholas,
Emperor and autocrat of all Russia.

(The poem “Emperor” was written in 1928 and is dedicated to an excursion to the burial place of Nicholas; the poet-agitator, naturally, approved of the murder of the Tsar; but the poems are beautiful, nothing can be done about it.)

But that's all later. In the meantime, in May 1868, a son, Nikolai, was born into the family of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich. In principle, Alexander Alexandrovich was not preparing to reign, but the eldest son of Alexander II, Nicholas, fell ill during a trip abroad and died. So Alexander III became king, in a sense, by accident. And Nicholas II, it turns out, was doubly accidental.

Alexander Alexandrovich ascended the throne in 1881 - after his father, nicknamed the Liberator for the abolition of serfdom, was brutally killed by revolutionaries in St. Petersburg. Alexander III ruled coolly, unlike his predecessor, without flirting with the liberal public. The tsar responded with terror to terror, caught many revolutionaries and hanged them. Among others - Alexandra Ulyanova. His younger brother Vladimir, as we know, subsequently took revenge on the royal family.

A time of prohibitions, reaction, censorship and police tyranny - this is how the era of Alexander III was described by contemporary oppositionists (mostly from abroad, of course) and, after them, by Soviet historians. And this is also the time of the war with the Turks in the Balkans for the liberation of the “Slavic brothers” (the same one in which the brave intelligence officer Fandorin performed his exploits), conquests in Central Asia, as well as various economic reliefs for peasants, strengthening the army and overcoming budgetary disasters.

For our story, it is important that the busy king did not have many free minutes left for family life. Almost the only (apocryphal) story about the relationship between father and son is associated with the beautiful ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. Allegedly, evil tongues said, the king was upset and worried that the heir could not get a mistress. And then one day, stern servants came to his son’s chambers (Alexander III was a simple, rude, harsh man, his friends were mainly with the military) and brought a gift from his father - a carpet. And in the carpet is a famous ballerina. Naked. That's how we met.

Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna (Princess Dagmara of Denmark) had little interest in Russian affairs. The heir grew up under the supervision of tutors - first an Englishman, then local. Received a decent education. Three European languages, and he spoke English almost better than Russian, an in-depth gymnasium course, then some university subjects.

Later - a pleasure trip to the mysterious countries of the East. In particular, to Japan. There was trouble with the heir. During a walk, the crown prince was attacked by a samurai and hit the future king on the head with a sword. In pre-revolutionary foreign brochures published by Russian revolutionaries, they wrote that the heir behaved impolitely in the temple, and in one Bolshevik one - that a drunken Nicholas urinated on some statue. This is all propaganda lies. Nevertheless, there was one blow. Someone from the retinue managed to repel the second one, but the residue remained. And also a scar, regular headaches and a dislike for the Land of the Rising Sun.

By family tradition the heir underwent something like military practice in the guard. First - in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, then - in the Life Guards Hussars. There is also an anecdote here. The hussars, in full accordance with the legend, were famous for their rampant drunkenness. At one time, when the regiment commander was Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Jr. (grandson of Nicholas I, cousin of Nicholas II’s father), the hussars even developed a whole ritual. Having drunk themselves to hell, they ran naked into the night - and howled, imitating a pack of wolves. And so on - until the barman brought them a trough of vodka, after drinking from which the werewolves calmed down and went to sleep. So the heir most likely served cheerfully.

He served cheerfully, lived cheerfully, and in the spring of 1894 he became engaged to Princess Alice of Hesse (she converted to Orthodoxy and became Alexandra Feodorovna). Marrying for love is a problem for crowned persons, but somehow everything worked out for the future spouses right away, and later in the course of their life together they showed unostentatious tenderness towards each other.

Oh yes. Nikolai abandoned Matilda Kshesinskaya immediately after the engagement. But the royal family liked the ballerina, then she was the mistress of two more great princes. I even gave birth to one.

In 1912, cadet V.P. Obninsky published the book “The Last Autocrat” in Berlin, in which he collected, it seems, all the known defamatory rumors about the tsar. So, he reports that Nicholas tried to renounce the reign, but his father, shortly before his death, forced him to sign the corresponding paper. However, no other historian confirms this rumor.

From Khodynka to the October 17 manifesto

The last Russian Tsar was definitely unlucky. Key events in his life - and in Russian history - did not show him in the best light, and often without his obvious guilt.

According to tradition, in honor of the coronation of the new emperor, a celebration was scheduled in Moscow: on May 18, 1896, up to half a million people gathered on the Khodynskoye field (pocked with pits, bordered on one side by a ravine; in general, moderately convenient). The people were promised beer, honey, nuts, sweets, gift mugs with monograms and portraits of the new emperor and empress. And also gingerbread and sausage.

People began to gather the day before, and early in the morning someone shouted in the crowd that there weren’t enough gifts for everyone. A wild stampede began. The police were unable to contain the crowd. As a result, about two thousand people died, hundreds of injured were hospitalized.

But this is in the morning. In the afternoon, the police finally dealt with the unrest, the dead were taken away, the blood was covered with sand, the emperor arrived on the field, his subjects shouted the required “hurray.” But, of course, they immediately started saying that the omen for the beginning of the reign was so-so. “Whoever began to reign over Khodynka will end by standing on the scaffold,” one mediocre but popular poet would later write. This is how a mediocre poet can turn out to be a prophet. It is unlikely that the king was personally responsible for the poor organization of the celebrations. But for many contemporaries, the words “Nikolai” and “Khodynka” somehow linked together.

Moscow students tried to organize a demonstration in memory of the victims. They were dispersed, and the instigators were caught. Nikolai showed that he was, after all, his father’s son and did not intend to become liberal.

However, his intentions were generally vague. He visited his European, so to speak, colleagues (the age of empires had not yet ended) and tried to persuade the leaders of world powers to commit to eternal peace. True, without enthusiasm and without much success, everyone in Europe understood even then that a big war was a matter of time. And no one understood how big this war would be. No one understood, no one was afraid.

The king was clearly more interested in a quiet family life than in state affairs. One after another, daughters were born - Olga (even before the coronation), then Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. There was no son, this caused concern. The dynasty needed an heir.

Dacha in Livadia, hunting. The king loved to shoot. The so-called “Diary of Nicholas II”, all these dull, monotonous and endless “shot at crows”, “killed a cat”, “drank tea” - a fake; but the king shot at innocent crows and cats with enthusiasm.

Photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky / Library of Congress

As mentioned above, the tsar became interested in photography (and, by the way, supported the famous Prokudin-Gorsky in every possible way). And also - one of the first in Europe to appreciate such a new thing as a car. He drove personally and had a fair fleet of vehicles. During pleasant activities, time passed unnoticed. The Tsar drove his car through the parks, and Russia climbed into Asia.

Even Alexander III understood that the empire would have to seriously fight in the East, and he sent his son on a cruise for nine months for a reason. Nikolai, as we remember, did not like it in Japan. A military alliance with China against Japan is one of his first foreign affairs affairs. Next came the construction of the CER (Chinese Eastern Railway), military bases in China, including the famous Port Arthur. And the discontent of Japan, and the rupture of diplomatic relations in January 1904, and then an attack on the Russian squadron.

The bird cherry quietly crept like a dream,
And someone “Tsushima...” said into the phone.
Hurry, hurry! The deadline is running out!
"Varyag" and "Koreets" went east.

This is Anna Andreevna Akhmatova.

“Varyag” and “Korean”, as everyone knows, died heroically in Chemulpo Bay, but at first the reason for Japanese successes was seen solely in the treachery of the “yellow-faced devils”. They were going to fight with the savages, and a mood of sabotage reigned in society. And then the king finally gave birth to an heir, Tsarevich Alexei.

And the tsar, and the military, and many ordinary citizens who were then experiencing patriotic delight, somehow did not notice that the Japanese savages were seriously preparing for war, spending a lot of money, attracting the best foreign specialists and creating an army and navy that were clearly more powerful than the Russians.

Failures followed one after another. The economy of an agricultural country could not maintain the pace necessary to support the front. Communications were no good - Russia is too big and our roads are too bad. The Russian army near Mukden was defeated. The huge fleet crawled around half the Earth from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, and then near the island of Tsushima it was almost completely destroyed by the Japanese in a few hours. Port Arthur was surrendered. Peace had to be concluded on humiliating terms. They gave away, among other things, half of Sakhalin.

Embittered, crippled, having seen hunger, mediocrity, cowardice and theft of the command, the soldiers returned to Russia. Lots of soldiers.

And in Russia by that time a lot had happened. Bloody Sunday, for example, January 9, 1905. The workers, whose situation naturally worsened (after all, there was a war), decided to go to the tsar - to ask for bread and, oddly enough, political freedoms, including popular representation. The demonstration was met with bullets, and the number of people killed - the data varies - from 100 to 200 people. The workers became embittered. Nikolai was upset.

What followed was what is called the revolution of 1905 - riots in the army and cities, their bloody suppression and - as an attempt to reconcile the country - the Manifesto of October 17, which granted Russians basic civil liberties and parliament - the State Duma. The emperor dissolved the First Duma by decree less than a year later. He didn't like the idea at all.

All these events did not add to the sovereign’s popularity. It seems that he has no supporters left among the intelligentsia. Konstantin Balmont, a rather bad, but very popular poet in those days, published abroad a book of poems with the pretentious title “Songs of Struggle,” which included, among other things, the poem “Our Tsar.”

Our king is Mukden, our king is Tsushima,
Our king is a bloody stain,
The stench of gunpowder and smoke,
In which the mind is dark.

About the scaffold and Khodynka, quoted above, is from the same place.

Tsar, war and newspapers

The time between the two wars is packed with events tightly and densely. Stolypin’s terror and Stolypin’s land reform (“They need great upheavals, we need a great Russia,” - this beautiful phrase was quoted by V.V. Putin, R.A. Kadyrov, N.S. Mikhalkov, and was created by a little-known speechwriter owned by the formidable premiere.) Economic growth. First experiences of parliamentary work; The Dumas were always in conflict with the government and were dissolved by the tsar. The behind-the-scenes fuss of the revolutionary parties that destroyed the empire - the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks. Nationalist reaction, the Union of the Russian People secretly supported by the tsar, Jewish pogroms. The flourishing of the arts...

The growth of influence at the court of Rasputin - a crazy old man from Siberia, either a whip or a holy fool, who was eventually able to completely subjugate the Russian Empress to his will: the Tsarevich was ill, Rasputin knew how to help him, and this worried the Empress more than all the upheavals in the external world. world.

To our proud capital
He comes in - God save me! -
Enchants the queen
Vast Rus'.

This is Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich, the poem “The Man” from the book “The Bonfire”.

There is, perhaps, no point in retelling in detail the history of the First World War, which thundered in August 1914 (by the way, there is an interesting and unexpected document about the state of the country on the eve of the disaster: just in 1914, J. Grosvenor, an American who wrote for The National, visited Russia Geographic Magazine a large and enthusiastic article “Young Russia. Country of Unlimited Possibilities” with a bunch of photographs; the country, according to the American, was blooming).

In short, it all looked like a quote from very recent newspapers: first patriotic enthusiasm, then failures at the front, an economy unable to serve the front, bad roads.

And also the tsar, who decided to personally lead the army in August 1915, and also the endless queues for bread in the capital and large cities, and then there was the revelry of the nouveau riche, who “rose up” on million-dollar military contracts, and also many thousands returning from front. Cripples and simply deserters. Having seen death up close, the dirt of gray Galicia, having seen Europe...

In addition, probably for the first time: the headquarters of the warring powers launched a large-scale information war, supplying the army and enemy rear with the most terrible rumors, including about august persons. And stories spread across the country in millions of sheets about how our tsar was a cowardly, weak-minded drunkard, and his wife was Rasputin’s mistress and a German spy.

This was all, of course, a lie, but this is what is important: in a world where the printed word was still believed and where ideas about the sacredness of autocratic power still simmered, they were greatly damaged swipe. It was not German leaflets or Bolshevik newspapers that broke the monarchy, but their role should not be completely discounted.

Tellingly, the German monarchy also did not survive the war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is over. In a world where the authorities have no secrets, where a journalist in a newspaper can rinse the sovereign as he wants, empires will not survive.

Taking all this into account, it probably becomes clearer why, when the king abdicated, no one was particularly surprised. Except, perhaps, himself and his wife. At the end of February, his wife wrote to him that hooligans were operating in St. Petersburg (this is how she tried to comprehend the February Revolution), and he demanded to suppress the unrest, no longer having loyal troops at hand. On March 2, 1917, Nicholas signed his abdication.

Ipatiev House and everything after

The provisional government sent the former tsar and his family to Tyumen, then to Tobolsk. The king almost liked what was happening. It's not so bad to be a private citizen and no longer responsible for a huge, war-torn country. Then the Bolsheviks moved him to Yekaterinburg.

Then... Everyone knows what happened then, in July 1918. Specific ideas of the Bolsheviks about political pragmatism. Brutal murder of the king, queen, children, doctor, servants. Martyrdom turned the last autocrat into a holy passion-bearer. Icons of the Tsar are now sold in any church shop, but with a portrait there is a certain difficulty.

A brave military man with a well-groomed beard, a quiet, one might even say kindly (forgive the killed cats) man in the street, who loved his family and simple human joys, found himself - not without the intervention of chance - at the head of the largest country in what was probably the most terrible period of its history.

He seems to be hiding behind this story, there is little brightness in him - not like in the events that passed by, affecting him and his family, in the events that in the end destroyed both him and the country, creating another. It’s as if he’s not there, you can’t see him behind a series of disasters.

And the terrible death removes the questions that people in Russia love to ask: is the ruler to blame for the country’s troubles? Guilty. Certainly. But no more than many others. And he paid dearly to atone for his guilt.

Nicholas II Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov


Coronation:
Predecessor:	Alexander III
Successor:	Mikhail Alexandrovich (did not accept the throne)
Heir:
Religion:	Orthodoxy
Birth:

Buried:	Secretly buried, presumably in the forest near the village of Koptyaki, Sverdlovsk region; in 1998, the alleged remains were reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral
Dynasty:	Romanovs
	Alexander III
	Maria Fedorovna
	Alice of Hesse (Alexandra Fedorovna)
	Daughters: Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia Son: Alexey
Autograph:
Monogram:

Names, titles, nicknames

First steps and coronation

Economic policy

Revolution of 1905-1907

Nicholas II and the Duma

Land reform

Military command reform

World War I

Probing the world

Fall of the Monarchy

Lifestyle, habits, hobbies

Russian

Foreign

After death

Assessment in Russian emigration

Official assessment in the USSR

Church veneration

Filmography

Film incarnations

Nicholas II Alexandrovich(May 6 (18), 1868, Tsarskoe Selo - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) - the last Emperor of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland (October 20 (November 1), 1894 - March 2 (March 15), 1917). From the Romanov dynasty. Colonel (1892); in addition, from the British monarchs he had the ranks of: admiral of the fleet (May 28, 1908) and field marshal of the British army (December 18, 1915).

The reign of Nicholas II was marked economic development Russia and at the same time - the growth of socio-political contradictions in it, the revolutionary movement, which resulted in the revolution of 1905-1907 and the revolution of 1917; in foreign policy - expansion in the Far East, the war with Japan, as well as Russia's participation in the military blocs of European powers and the First World War.

Nicholas II abdicated the throne during the February Revolution of 1917 and was under house arrest with his family in the Tsarskoye Selo palace. In the summer of 1917, by decision of the Provisional Government, he and his family were sent into exile in Tobolsk, and in the spring of 1918 he was moved by the Bolsheviks to Yekaterinburg, where he was shot along with his family and associates in July 1918.

Canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a passion-bearer in 2000.

Names, titles, nicknames

Titled from birth His Imperial Highness (Sovereign) Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich. After the death of his grandfather, Emperor Alexander II, on March 1, 1881, he received the title of Heir to Tsesarevich.

The full title of Nicholas II as Emperor: “By the advancing grace of God, 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 Chersonese Tauride, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Podolsk and Finland; Prince of Estland, Livonia, Courland and Semigal, Samogit, Bialystok, Korel, Tver, Yugorsk, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novagorod of the Nizovsky lands?, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondiysky, Vitebsk, Mstislavsky and all northern countries? Lord; and Sovereign of Iversk, Kartalinsky and Kabardian lands? and the region of Armenia; Cherkasy and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Sovereign of Turkestan; Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg, and so on, and so on, and so on.”

After the February Revolution, it began to be called Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov(previously, the surname “Romanov” was not indicated by members of the imperial house; membership in the family was indicated by the titles: Grand Duke, Emperor, Empress, Tsarevich, etc.).

In connection with the events on Khodynka and January 9, 1905, he was nicknamed “Nicholas the Bloody” by the radical opposition; appeared with this nickname in Soviet popular historiography. His wife privately called him “Niki” (communication between them was mainly in English).

The Caucasian highlanders who served in the Caucasian native cavalry division of the imperial army called Sovereign Nicholas II the “White Padishah,” thereby showing their respect and devotion to the Russian emperor.

Childhood, education and upbringing

Nicholas II is the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Immediately after birth, on May 6, 1868, he was named Nikolai. The baby's baptism was performed by the confessor of the imperial family, Protopresbyter Vasily Bazhanov, in the Resurrection Church of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace on May 20 of the same year; the successors were: Alexander II, Queen Louise of Denmark, Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.

In early childhood, the teacher of Nikolai and his brothers was the Englishman Karl Osipovich Heath, who lived in Russia ( Charles Heath, 1826-1900); General G. G. Danilovich was appointed his official tutor as his heir in 1877. Nikolai was educated at home as part of a large gymnasium course; in 1885-1890 - according to a specially written program that combined the course of the state and economic departments of the university's law faculty with the course of the Academy of the General Staff. The studies were conducted for 13 years: the first eight years were devoted to subjects of an extended gymnasium course, where special attention was paid to the study of political history, Russian literature, English, German and French (Nikolai Alexandrovich spoke English as a native); the next five years were devoted to the study of military affairs, legal and economic sciences necessary for a statesman. Lectures were given by world-famous scientists: N. N. Beketov, N. N. Obruchev, Ts. A. Cui, M. I. Dragomirov, N. H. Bunge, K. P. Pobedonostsev and others. Protopresbyter John Yanyshev taught the Tsarevich canon law in connection with the history of the church, the most important departments of theology and the history of religion.

On May 6, 1884, upon reaching adulthood (for the Heir), he took the oath in the Great Church of the Winter Palace, as announced by the Highest Manifesto. The first act published on his behalf was a rescript addressed to the Moscow Governor-General V.A. Dolgorukov: 15 thousand rubles for distribution, at the discretion of that “among the residents of Moscow who most need help”

For the first two years, Nikolai served as a junior officer in the ranks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. For two summer seasons he served in the ranks of a cavalry hussar regiment as a squadron commander, and then did a camp training in the ranks of the artillery. On August 6, 1892 he was promoted to colonel. At the same time, his father introduces him to the affairs of governing the country, inviting him to participate in meetings of the State Council and the Cabinet of Ministers. At the suggestion of the Minister of Railways S. Yu. Witte, Nikolai in 1892, in order to gain experience in government affairs, was appointed chairman of the committee for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. By the age of 23, the Heir was a man who had received extensive information in various fields of knowledge.

The educational program included travel to various provinces of Russia, which he made together with his father. To complete his education, his father gave him a cruiser to travel to the Far East. In nine months, he and his retinue visited Austria-Hungary, Greece, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and later returned to the capital of Russia by land through all of Siberia. In Japan, an attempt was made on Nicholas's life (see Otsu Incident). A shirt with blood stains is kept in the Hermitage.

Opposition politician, member of the State Duma of the first convocation V.P. Obninsky, in his anti-monarchist essay “The Last Autocrat,” argued that Nicholas “at one time stubbornly refused the throne,” but was forced to yield to the demands of Alexander III and “sign a manifesto on his accession during his father’s lifetime.” to the throne."

Accession to the throne and beginning of reign

First steps and coronation

A few days after the death of Alexander III (October 20, 1894) and his accession to the throne (the Highest Manifesto was published on October 21; on the same day the oath was taken by dignitaries, officials, courtiers and troops), on November 14, 1894 in the Great Church of the Winter Palace married to Alexandra Fedorovna; the honeymoon took place in an atmosphere of funeral services and mourning visits.

One of the first personnel decisions of Emperor Nicholas II was the dismissal of the conflict-ridden I.V. in December 1894. Gurko from the post of Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland and the appointment in February 1895 of A.B. to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Lobanov-Rostovsky - after the death of N.K. Girsa.

As a result of the exchange of notes dated February 27 (March 11), 1895, “the delimitation of the spheres of influence of Russia and Great Britain in the Pamir region, east of Lake Zor-Kul (Victoria)” was established along the Pyanj River; The Pamir volost became part of the Osh district of the Fergana region; The Vakhan ridge on Russian maps received the designation Ridge of Emperor Nicholas II. The first major international act of the emperor was the Triple Intervention - a simultaneous (April 11 (23) 1895), on the initiative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, presentation (together with Germany and France) of demands for Japan to reconsider the terms of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty with China, renouncing claims to the Liaodong Peninsula .

The first public appearance of the Emperor in St. Petersburg was his speech, delivered on January 17, 1895 in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace before deputations of the nobility, zemstvos and cities who arrived “to express loyal feelings to Their Majesties and bring congratulations on the Marriage”; The delivered text of the speech (the speech was written in advance, but the emperor pronounced it only from time to time looking at the paper) read: “I know that recently in some zemstvo meetings the voices of people have been heard who were carried away by meaningless dreams about the participation of zemstvo representatives in the affairs of internal government. Let everyone know that I, devoting all My strength to the good of the people, will protect the beginning of autocracy as firmly and unswervingly as My unforgettable, late Parent guarded it.” In connection with the Tsar’s speech, Chief Prosecutor K.P. Pobedonostsev wrote to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich on February 2 of the same year: “After the Tsar’s speech, excitement continues with chatter of all kinds. I don’t hear her, but they tell me that everywhere among the youth and intelligentsia there is talk of some kind of irritation against the young Sovereign. Yesterday Maria Al came to see me. Meshcherskaya (ur. Panina), who came here for a short time from the village. She is indignant at all the speeches she hears about this in living rooms. But on ordinary people and the Tsar’s word made a beneficial impression on the villages. Many deputies, coming here, were expecting God knows what, and when they heard, they breathed freely. But how sad it is that in the upper circles there is absurd irritation. I am sure, unfortunately, that the majority of members of the government. The Council is critical of the Sovereign's action and, alas, so are some ministers! God knows what? was in people's heads before this day, and what expectations had grown... It is true that they gave a reason for this... Many straightforward Russian people were positively confused by the awards announced on January 1st. It turned out that the new Sovereign, from the first step, distinguished those very people whom the deceased considered dangerous. All this inspires fear for the future. “In the early 1910s, a representative of the left wing of the Cadets, V.P. Obninsky, wrote about the tsar’s speech in his anti-monarchist essay: “They assured that the word “unrealizable” was in the text. But be that as it may, it served as the beginning of not only a general cooling towards Nicholas, but also laid the foundation for the future liberation movement, uniting zemstvo leaders and instilling in them a more decisive course of action. The speech on January 17, 95 can be considered Nicholas’s first step down an inclined plane, along which he continues to roll to this day, descending ever lower in the opinion of both his subjects and the entire civilized world.” Historian S. S. Oldenburg wrote about the speech of January 17: “Russian educated society, for the most part, accepted this speech as a challenge to itself. The speech of January 17 dispelled the hopes of the intelligentsia for the possibility of constitutional reforms from above. In this regard, it served as the starting point for a new growth of revolutionary agitation, for which funds again began to be found.”

The coronation of the emperor and his wife took place on May 14 (26), 1896 ( about the victims of coronation celebrations in Moscow, see the article by Khodynka). In the same year, the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition was held in Nizhny Novgorod, which he attended.

In April 1896, the Russian government formally recognized the Bulgarian government of Prince Ferdinand. In 1896, Nicholas II also made a big trip to Europe, meeting with Franz Joseph, Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria (Alexandra Feodorovna's grandmother); The end of the trip was his arrival in the capital of the allied France, Paris. By the time of his arrival in Britain in September 1896, there had been a sharp deterioration in relations between London and the Porte, formally associated with the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and a simultaneous rapprochement between St. Petersburg and Constantinople; guest? at Queen Victoria's in Balmoral, Nicholas, having agreed to jointly develop a project of reforms in the Ottoman Empire, rejected the proposals made to him by the English government to remove Sultan Abdul Hamid, retain Egypt for England, and in return receive some concessions on the issue of the Straits. Arriving in Paris in early October of the same year, Nicholas approved joint instructions to the ambassadors of Russia and France in Constantinople (which the Russian government had categorically refused until that time), approved French proposals on the Egyptian issue (which included “guarantees of neutralization of the Suez Canal” - a goal which was previously outlined for Russian diplomacy by Foreign Minister Lobanov-Rostovsky, who died on August 30, 1896). The Paris agreements of the tsar, who was accompanied on the trip by N.P. Shishkin, aroused sharp objections from Sergei Witte, Lamzdorf, Ambassador Nelidov and others; however, by the end of the same year, Russian diplomacy returned to its previous course: strengthening the alliance with France, pragmatic cooperation with Germany on certain issues, freezing the Eastern Question (that is, supporting the Sultan and opposition to England’s plans in Egypt). It was ultimately decided to abandon the plan for landing Russian troops on the Bosphorus (under a certain scenario) approved at a meeting of ministers on December 5, 1896, chaired by the Tsar. During 1897, 3 heads of state arrived in St. Petersburg to pay a visit to the Russian Emperor: Franz Joseph, Wilhelm II, French President Felix Faure; During the visit of Franz Josef, an agreement was concluded between Russia and Austria for 10 years.

The manifesto of June 28, 1899 (published on June 30) announced the death of the same June 28 “Heir to the Tsarevich and Grand Duke George Alexandrovich” (the oath to the latter, as the heir to the throne, was previously taken along with the oath to Nicholas) and read further: “From now on, until The Lord is not yet pleased to bless Us with the birth of a Son; the immediate right of succession to the All-Russian Throne, on the exact basis of the main State Law on Succession to the Throne, belongs to Our Most Dear Brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.” The absence in the Manifesto of the words “Heir Tsarevich” in the title of Mikhail Alexandrovich aroused bewilderment in court circles, which prompted the emperor to issue a Personal Highest Decree on July 7 of the same year, which ordered the latter to be called “Sovereign Heir and Grand Duke.”

Economic policy

According to the first general census conducted in January 1897, the population of the Russian Empire was 125 million people; Of these, 84 million had Russian as their native language; 21% of the Russian population were literate, and 34% of people aged 10-19 years.

In January of the same year, a monetary reform was carried out, establishing the gold standard of the ruble. The transition to the gold ruble, among other things, was a devaluation of the national currency: on imperials of the previous weight and fineness it was now written “15 rubles” - instead of 10; However, the stabilization of the ruble at the “two-thirds” rate, contrary to forecasts, was successful and without shocks.

Much attention was paid to the work issue. In factories with more than 100 workers, free medical care was introduced, covering 70 percent of the total number of factory workers (1898). In June 1903, the Rules on Remuneration for Victims of Industrial Accidents were approved by the Highest, obliging the entrepreneur to pay benefits and pensions to the victim or his family in the amount of 50-66 percent of the victim’s maintenance. In 1906, workers' trade unions were created in the country. The law of June 23, 1912 introduced compulsory insurance of workers against illnesses and accidents in Russia. On June 2, 1897, a law was issued to limit working hours, which established a maximum limit of the working day of no more than 11.5 hours on ordinary days, and 10 hours on Saturdays and holidays, or if at least part of the working day fell at night.

A special tax on landowners of Polish origin in the Western Region, introduced as punishment for the Polish uprising of 1863, was abolished. By decree of June 12, 1900, exile to Siberia as a punishment was abolished.

The reign of Nicholas II was a period of relatively high rates of economic growth: in 1885-1913, the growth rate of agricultural production averaged 2%, and the growth rate of industrial production was 4.5-5% per year. Coal production in the Donbass increased from 4.8 million tons in 1894 to 24 million tons in 1913. Coal mining began in the Kuznetsk coal basin. Oil production developed in the vicinity of Baku, Grozny and Emba.

The construction of railways continued, the total length of which, amounting to 44 thousand kilometers in 1898, by 1913 exceeded 70 thousand kilometers. In terms of the total length of railways, Russia surpassed any other European country and was second only to the United States. In terms of output of the main types of industrial products per capita, Russia in 1913 was a neighbor of Spain.

Foreign policy and the Russo-Japanese War

The historian Oldenburg, while in exile, argued in his apologetic work that back in 1895 the emperor foresaw the possibility of a clash with Japan for dominance in the Far East, and therefore was preparing for this struggle - both diplomatically and militarily. From the tsar's resolution on April 2, 1895, at the report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, his desire for further Russian expansion in the Southeast (Korea) was clear.

On June 3, 1896, a Russian-Chinese agreement on a military alliance against Japan was concluded in Moscow; China agreed to the construction of a railway through Northern Manchuria to Vladivostok, the construction and operation of which was provided to the Russian-Chinese Bank. On September 8, 1896, a concession agreement was signed between the Chinese government and the Russian-Chinese Bank for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). On March 15 (27), 1898, Russia and China signed the Russian-Chinese Convention of 1898 in Beijing, according to which Russia was granted lease use for 25 years of the ports of Port Arthur (Lushun) and Dalniy (Dalian) with adjacent territories and waters; In addition, the Chinese government agreed to extend the concession it granted to the CER Society for the construction of a railway line (South Manchurian Railway) from one of the points of the CER to Dalniy and Port Arthur.

In 1898, Nicholas II turned to the governments of Europe with proposals to sign agreements on maintaining world peace and establishing limits to the constant growth of armaments. The Hague Peace Conferences took place in 1899 and 1907, some of whose decisions are still in effect today (in particular, the Permanent Court of Arbitration was created in The Hague).

In 1900, Nicholas II sent Russian troops to suppress the Yihetuan uprising together with the troops of other European powers, Japan and the United States.

On January 24, 1904, the Japanese ambassador presented the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs V.N. Lamzdorf with a note, which announced the termination of negotiations, which Japan considered “useless,” and the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia; Japan recalled its diplomatic mission from St. Petersburg and reserved the right to resort to “independent actions” as it deemed necessary to protect its interests. On the evening of January 26, the Japanese fleet attacked the Port Arthur squadron without declaring war. The highest manifesto, given by Nicholas II on January 27, 1904, declared war on Japan.

The border battle on the Yalu River was followed by battles at Liaoyang, the Shahe River and Sandepu. After a major battle in February - March 1905, the Russian army abandoned Mukden.

The outcome of the war was decided by the naval battle of Tsushima in May 1905, which ended in the complete defeat of the Russian fleet. On May 23, 1905, the Emperor received, through the US Ambassador in St. Petersburg, a proposal from President T. Roosevelt for mediation to conclude peace. The difficult situation of the Russian government after the Russo-Japanese War prompted German diplomacy to make another attempt in July 1905 to tear Russia away from France and conclude a Russian-German alliance: Wilhelm II invited Nicholas II to meet in July 1905 in the Finnish skerries, near the island of Bjorke. Nikolai agreed and signed the agreement at the meeting; Having returned to St. Petersburg, he abandoned it, since on August 23 (September 5), 1905, a peace treaty was signed in Portsmouth by Russian representatives S. Yu. Witte and R. R. Rosen. Under the terms of the latter, Russia recognized Korea as Japan's sphere of influence, ceded to Japan Southern Sakhalin and the rights to the Liaodong Peninsula with the cities of Port Arthur and Dalniy.

Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (the first in half a century) and the subsequent suppression of the Troubles of 1905-1907. (later aggravated by the appearance of Rasputin at court) led to a decline in the authority of the emperor in ruling and intellectual circles.

The German journalist G. Ganz, who lived in St. Petersburg during the war, noted the defeatist position of a significant part of the nobility and intelligentsia in relation to the war: “The common secret prayer of not only liberals, but also many moderate conservatives at that time was: “God, help us to be defeated.” "

Revolution of 1905-1907

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II made some concessions to liberal circles: after the murder of the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve by a Socialist Revolutionary militant, he appointed P.D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, who was considered a liberal, to his post; On December 12, 1904, the Supreme Decree was given to the Senate “On plans for improvement State order”, promising the expansion of rights of zemstvos, insurance of workers, emancipation of foreigners and people of other faiths, and the elimination of censorship. When discussing the text of the Decree of December 12, 1904, he, however, privately told Count Witte (according to the latter’s memoirs): “I will never, under any circumstances, agree to a representative form of government, because I consider it harmful for the people entrusted to me by God. »

On January 6, 1905 (the feast of Epiphany), during the blessing of water in Jordan (on the ice of the Neva), in front of the Winter Palace, in the presence of the emperor and members of his family, at the very beginning of the singing of the troparion, a shot was heard from a gun, which accidentally (according to the official version ) there was a charge of buckshot left after the exercise on January 4th. Most of the bullets hit the ice next to the royal pavilion and the facade of the palace, in 4 of whose windows the glass was broken. In connection with the incident, the editor of the synodal publication wrote that “one cannot help but see something special” in the fact that only one policeman named “Romanov” was mortally wounded and the pole of the banner of “the nursery of our ill-fated fleet” - the banner of the naval corps - was shot through .

On January 9 (Old Art.), 1905, in St. Petersburg, on the initiative of priest Georgy Gapon, a procession of workers took place to the Winter Palace. The workers went to the tsar with a petition containing socio-economic, as well as some political, demands. The procession was dispersed by troops, and there were casualties. The events of that day in St. Petersburg entered Russian historiography as “Bloody Sunday”, the victims of which, according to V. Nevsky’s research, were no more than 100-200 people (according to updated government data as of January 10, 1905, 96 were killed and injured in the riots 333 people, which includes a number of law enforcement officers). On February 4, in the Moscow Kremlin, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who professed extreme right-wing political views and had a certain influence on his nephew, was killed by a terrorist bomb.

On April 17, 1905, a decree “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance” was issued, which abolished a number of religious restrictions, in particular in relation to “schismatics” (Old Believers).

Strikes continued throughout the country; Unrest began on the outskirts of the empire: in Courland, the Forest Brothers began to massacre local German landowners, and the Armenian-Tatar massacre began in the Caucasus. Revolutionaries and separatists received support with money and weapons from England and Japan. Thus, in the summer of 1905, the English steamer John Grafton, which ran aground, was detained in the Baltic Sea, carrying several thousand rifles for Finnish separatists and revolutionary militants. There were several uprisings in the navy and in various cities. The largest was the December uprising in Moscow. At the same time, Socialist Revolutionary and anarchist individual terror gained great momentum. In just a couple of years, revolutionaries killed thousands of officials, officers and police officers - in 1906 alone, 768 were killed and 820 representatives and agents of the government were wounded. The second half of 1905 was marked by numerous unrest in universities and theological seminaries: due to the unrest, almost 50 secondary theological educational institutions were closed. The adoption of a temporary law on university autonomy on August 27 caused a general strike of students and stirred up teachers at universities and theological academies. Opposition parties took advantage of the expansion of freedoms to intensify attacks on the autocracy in the press.

On August 6, 1905, a manifesto was signed on the establishment of the State Duma (“as a legislative advisory institution, which is provided with the preliminary development and discussion of legislative proposals and consideration of the list of state revenues and expenses” - the Bulygin Duma), the law on the State Duma and the regulations on elections to the Duma. But the revolution, which was gaining strength, overstepped the acts of August 6: in October, an all-Russian political strike began, over 2 million people went on strike. On the evening of October 17, Nikolai, after psychologically difficult hesitations, decided to sign a manifesto, which commanded, among other things: “1. To grant the population the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of actual personal inviolability, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and association. 3. Establish as an unshakable rule that no law can take effect without the approval of the State Duma and that those elected by the people are provided with the opportunity to truly participate in monitoring the regularity of the actions of the authorities appointed by US.” On April 23, 1906, the Basic State Laws of the Russian Empire were approved, which provided for a new role for the Duma in the legislative process. From the point of view of the liberal public, the Manifesto marked the end of the Russian autocracy as the unlimited power of the monarch.

Three weeks after the manifesto, political prisoners were amnestied, except for those convicted of terrorism; The decree of November 24, 1905 abolished preliminary general and spiritual censorship for time-based (periodical) publications published in the cities of the empire (on April 26, 1906, all censorship was abolished).

After the publication of the manifestos, the strikes subsided; the armed forces (except for the navy, where unrest took place) remained faithful to the oath; An extreme right monarchist public organization, the Union of the Russian People, arose and was secretly supported by Nicholas.

During the revolution, in 1906, Konstantin Balmont wrote the poem “Our Tsar”, dedicated to Nicholas II, which turned out to be prophetic:

Our King is Mukden, our King is Tsushima,
Our King is a bloody stain,
The stench of gunpowder and smoke,
In which the mind is dark. Our Tsar is a blind misery,
Prison and whip, trial, execution,
The hanged king is twice as low,
What he promised, but didn’t dare give. He is a coward, he feels with hesitation,
But it will happen, the hour of reckoning awaits.
Who began to reign - Khodynka,
He will end up standing on the scaffold.

The decade between two revolutions

Milestones of domestic and foreign policy

On August 18 (31), 1907, an agreement was signed with Great Britain to delimit spheres of influence in China, Afghanistan and Persia, which generally completed the process of forming an alliance of 3 powers - the Triple Entente, known as the Entente ( Triple Entente); however, mutual military obligations at that time existed only between Russia and France - under the agreement of 1891 and the military convention of 1892. On May 27 - 28, 1908 (Old Art.), a meeting of the British King Edward VIII with the Tsar took place - on the roadstead in the harbor of Revel; the tsar accepted from the king the uniform of an admiral of the British fleet. The Revel meeting of the monarchs was interpreted in Berlin as a step towards the formation of an anti-German coalition - despite the fact that Nicholas was a staunch opponent of rapprochement with England against Germany. The agreement concluded between Russia and Germany on August 6 (19), 1911 (Potsdam Agreement) did not change the general vector of the involvement of Russia and Germany in opposing military-political alliances.

On June 17, 1910, the law on the procedure for issuing laws relating to the Principality of Finland, known as the law on the procedure for general imperial legislation, was approved by the State Council and the State Duma (see Russification of Finland).

The Russian contingent, which had been stationed there in Persia since 1909 due to the unstable political situation, was reinforced in 1911.

In 1912, Mongolia became a de facto protectorate of Russia, gaining independence from China as a result of the revolution that took place there. After this revolution in 1912-1913, Tuvan noyons (ambyn-noyon Kombu-Dorzhu, Chamzy Khamby Lama, noyon Daa-khoshun Buyan-Badyrgy and others) several times appealed to the tsarist government with a request to accept Tuva under the protectorate of the Russian Empire. On April 4 (17), 1914, a resolution on the report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs established a Russian protectorate over the Uriankhai region: the region was included in the Yenisei province with the transfer of political and diplomatic affairs in Tuva to the Irkutsk Governor-General.

The beginning of military operations of the Balkan Union against Turkey in the fall of 1912 marked the collapse of the diplomatic efforts undertaken after the Bosnian crisis by the Minister of Foreign Affairs S. D. Sazonov towards an alliance with the Porte and at the same time keeping the Balkan states under his control: contrary to the expectations of the Russian government, the troops of the latter successfully pushed back Turks and in November 1912 the Bulgarian army was 45 km from the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (see Battle of Chataldzhin). After the actual transfer of the Turkish army under German command (German General Liman von Sanders at the end of 1913 took over the post of chief inspector of the Turkish army), the question of the inevitability of war with Germany was raised in Sazonov’s note to the emperor dated December 23, 1913; Sazonov's note was also discussed at a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

In 1913, a wide celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty took place: the imperial family traveled to Moscow, from there to Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, and then along the Volga to Kostroma, where in the Ipatiev Monastery on March 14, 1613, the first Romanov tsar was called to the throne - Mikhail Fedorovich; In January 1914, the solemn consecration of the Fedorov Cathedral, erected to commemorate the anniversary of the dynasty, took place in St. Petersburg.

Nicholas II and the Duma

The first two State Dumas were unable to conduct regular legislative work: the contradictions between the deputies, on the one hand, and the emperor, on the other, were insurmountable. So, immediately after the opening, in a response to Nicholas II’s speech from the throne, the left Duma members demanded the liquidation of the State Council (the upper house of parliament) and the transfer of monastery and state-owned lands to the peasants. On May 19, 1906, 104 deputies of the Labor Group put forward a land reform project (Project 104), the content of which was the confiscation of landowners' lands and the nationalization of all land.

The Duma of the first convocation was dissolved by the emperor by a personal decree to the Senate of July 8 (21), 1906 (published on Sunday, July 9), which set the time for convening the newly elected Duma on February 20, 1907; the subsequent Highest Manifesto of July 9 explained the reasons, among which were: “Those elected from the population, instead of working on legislative construction, deviated into an area that did not belong to them and turned to investigating the actions of local authorities appointed by Us, to pointing out to Us the imperfections of the Fundamental Laws, the changes of which could to be undertaken only by Our Monarch’s will, and to actions that are clearly illegal, such as an appeal on behalf of the Duma to the population.” By decree of July 10 of the same year, the sessions of the State Council were suspended.

Simultaneously with the dissolution of the Duma, P. A. Stolypin was appointed instead of I. L. Goremykin to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Stolypin's agricultural policy, successful suppression of the unrest, and bright speeches in the Second Duma made him the idol of some right-wingers.

The second Duma turned out to be even more left-wing than the first, since the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, who boycotted the first Duma, took part in the elections. The government was ripening the idea of dissolving the Duma and changing the electoral law; Stolypin did not intend to destroy the Duma, but to change the composition of the Duma. The reason for the dissolution was the actions of the Social Democrats: on May 5, at the apartment of a Duma member from the RSDLP Ozol, the police discovered a meeting of 35 Social Democrats and about 30 soldiers of the St. Petersburg garrison; In addition, the police discovered various propaganda materials calling for the violent overthrow of the state system, various orders from soldiers of military units and fake passports. On June 1, Stolypin and the chairman of the St. Petersburg Judicial Chamber demanded that the Duma remove the entire Social Democratic faction from Duma meetings and lift immunity from 16 members of the RSDLP. The Duma did not agree to the government's demand; The result of the confrontation was the manifesto of Nicholas II on the dissolution of the Second Duma, published on June 3, 1907, together with the Regulations on elections to the Duma, that is, the new electoral law. The manifesto also indicated the date for the opening of the new Duma - November 1 of the same year. The act of June 3, 1907 in Soviet historiography was called a “coup d’etat,” since it contradicted the manifesto of October 17, 1905, according to which no new law could be adopted without the approval of the State Duma.

According to General A. A. Mosolov, Nicholas II looked at the members of the Duma not as representatives of the people, but as “simply intellectuals” and added that his attitude towards peasant delegations was completely different: “The Tsar met with them willingly and spoke for a long time , without fatigue, joyfully and affably.”

Land reform

From 1902 to 1905, both statesmen and scientists of Russia were involved in the development of new agrarian legislation at the state level: Vl. I. Gurko, S. Yu. Witte, I. L. Goremykin, A. V. Krivoshein, P. A. Stolypin, P. P. Migulin, N. N. Kutler and A. A. Kaufman. The question of abolishing the community was posed by life itself. At the height of the revolution, N. N. Kutler even proposed a project for the alienation of part of the landowners' lands. On January 1, 1907, the law on the free exit of peasants from the community (Stolypin agrarian reform) began to be practically applied. Granting peasants the right to freely dispose of their land and the abolition of communities was of great national importance, but the reform was not completed and could not be completed, the peasant did not become the owner of land throughout the country, peasants left the community en masse and returned back. And Stolypin sought to allocate land to some peasants at the expense of others and, above all, to preserve landownership, which closed the way to free farming. This was only a partial solution to the problem.

Military command reform

In the first period of military reforms (1905-1908), the highest military administration was decentralized (the Main Directorate of the General Staff, independent of the War Ministry, was established, the State Defense Council was created, inspector generals were subordinate directly to the emperor), the terms of active service were reduced (in the infantry and field artillery from 5 to 3 years, in other branches of the military from 5 to 4 years, in the navy from 7 to 5 years), the officer corps was rejuvenated; The life of soldiers and sailors (food and clothing allowances) and the financial situation of officers and long-term servicemen were improved.

During the second period of Military reforms (1909-1912), the centralization of senior management was carried out (the Main Directorate of the General Staff was included in the Ministry of War, the Council of State Defense was abolished, inspector generals were subordinate to the Minister of War); Due to the combatively weak reserve and fortress troops, the field troops were strengthened (the number of army corps increased from 31 to 37), a reserve was created in the field units, which during mobilization was allocated for the deployment of secondary ones (including field artillery, engineering and railway troops, communications units) , machine gun teams were created in regiments and corps air detachments, cadet schools were transformed into military schools that received new programs, new regulations and instructions were introduced. In 1910, the Imperial Air Force was created.

World War I

On July 19 (August 1), 1914, Germany declared war on Russia: Russia entered the world war, which for it ended in the collapse of the empire and dynasty.

On July 20, 1914, the Emperor gave and by the evening of the same day published the Manifesto on the War, as well as the Personal Highest Decree, in which he, “not recognizing the possibility, for reasons of a national nature, to now become the head of Our land and naval forces intended for military actions,” ordered Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to be Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

By decrees of July 24, 1914, the sessions of the State Council and the Duma were interrupted from July 26. On July 26, a manifesto on war with Austria was published. On the same day, the Supreme Reception of members of the State Council and the Duma took place: the emperor arrived at the Winter Palace on a yacht together with Nikolai Nikolaevich and, entering the Nicholas Hall, addressed those gathered with the following words: “Germany and then Austria declared war on Russia. That huge upsurge of patriotic feelings of love for the Motherland and devotion to the Throne, which swept like a hurricane across our entire land, serves in My eyes and, I think, in yours, as a guarantee that Our great Mother Russia will bring the war sent by the Lord God to the desired end. I am confident that each and every one of you in your place will help Me endure the test sent down to Me and that everyone, starting with Me, will fulfill their duty to the end. Great is the God of the Russian Land!” At the end of his response speech, the Chairman of the Duma, Chamberlain M.V. Rodzianko, said: “Without differences of opinions, views and convictions, the State Duma on behalf of the Russian Land calmly and firmly says to its Tsar: “Be of good cheer, Sovereign, the Russian people are with you and, firmly trusting by the mercy of God, will not stop at any sacrifices until the enemy is broken and the dignity of the Motherland is protected.“”

With a manifesto dated October 20 (November 2), 1914, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire: “In a hitherto unsuccessful struggle with Russia, trying by all means to increase their forces, Germany and Austria-Hungary resorted to the help of the Ottoman government and brought Turkey, blinded by them, into the war with us . The Turkish fleet, led by the Germans, dared to treacherously attack our Black Sea coast. Immediately after this We commanded To the Russian Ambassador in Constantinople, with all ambassadorial and consular ranks, leave the borders of Turkey. Together with all the Russian people, we adamantly believe that Turkey’s current reckless intervention in military operations will only accelerate the fatal course of events for it and will open the way for Russia to resolve the historical tasks bequeathed to it by its ancestors on the shores of the Black Sea.” The government press organ reported that on October 21, “the day of the Accession to the Throne of the Sovereign Emperor took on the character of a national holiday in Tiflis, in connection with the war with Turkey”; on the same day, the Viceroy received a deputation of 100 prominent Armenians led by a bishop: the deputation “asked the Count to bring to the feet of the Monarch of Great Russia the feelings of boundless devotion and ardent love of the loyal Armenian people”; then a deputation of Sunni and Shia Muslims presented themselves.

During the period of Nikolai Nikolayevich's command, the tsar traveled to Headquarters several times for meetings with the command (September 21 - 23, October 22 - 24, November 18 - 20); in November 1914 he also traveled to the south of Russia and the Caucasian front.

Both from public organizations, the State Duma, and from other groups, even many grand dukes, they started talking about creating a “Ministry of Public Trust.”

At the beginning of 1915, troops at the front began to experience a great need for weapons and ammunition. The need for a complete restructuring of the economy in accordance with the demands of the war became clear. On August 17, Nicholas II approved documents on the formation of four special meetings: on defense, fuel, food and transportation. These meetings, consisting of representatives of the government, private industrialists, the State Duma and the State Council and headed by the relevant ministers, were supposed to unite the efforts of the government, private industry and the public in mobilizing industry for military needs. The most important of these was the Special Conference on Defense.

Along with the creation of special meetings, in 1915 Military-Industrial Committees began to emerge - public organizations of the bourgeoisie that were semi-oppositional in nature.

On August 23, 1915, motivating his decision by the need to establish agreement between Headquarters and the government, to end the separation of the power at the head of the army from the power governing the country, Nicholas II assumed the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, dismissing the Grand Duke, popular in the army, from this post Nikolai Nikolaevich. According to State Council member (a monarchist by conviction) Vladimir Gurko, the emperor’s decision was made at the instigation of Rasputin’s “gang” and caused disapproval from the overwhelming majority of members of the Council of Ministers, the generals and the public.

Due to the constant movements of Nicholas II from Headquarters to Petrograd, as well as insufficient attention to issues of troop leadership, the actual command of the Russian army was concentrated in the hands of his chief of staff, General M.V. Alekseev, and General Vasily Gurko, who replaced him at the end of 1916 - beginning of 1917. The autumn conscription of 1916 put 13 million people under arms, and losses in the war exceeded 2 million.

On January 19 (February 1), 1917, a meeting of high-ranking representatives of the Allied powers opened in Petrograd, which went down in history as the Petrograd Conference ( q.v.): from Russia's allies it was attended by delegates from Great Britain, France and Italy, who also visited Moscow and the front, had meetings with politicians of different political orientations, with leaders of Duma factions; the latter unanimously told the head of the British delegation about an imminent revolution - either from below or from above (in the form of a palace coup).

Nicholas II assumed the Supreme Command of the Russian Army

General M.V. Alekseev, who came to Headquarters in September 1914, was also “struck by the disorder, confusion and despondency reigning there. Both Nikolai Nikolaevich and Yanushkevich were confused by the failures of the North-Western Front and did not know what to do.”

On August 23, 1915, Nicholas II assumed the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, replacing Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, who was appointed commander of the Caucasian Front. M.V. Alekseev was appointed chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Soon, General Alekseev’s condition changed dramatically: the general perked up, his anxiety and complete confusion disappeared. The general on duty at Headquarters P.K. Kondzerovsky even thought that good news had come from the front, forcing the chief of staff to cheer up, but the reason was different: the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief received Alekseev’s report on the situation at the front and gave him certain instructions; A telegram was sent to the front saying “not a step back now.” The Vilna-Molodechno breakthrough was ordered to be liquidated by the troops of General Evert. Alekseev was busy carrying out the order of the Sovereign:

Meanwhile, Nikolai’s decision caused a mixed reaction, given that all the ministers opposed this step and only his wife unconditionally spoke in favor of it. Minister A.V. Krivoshein said:

The result of this decision of Nicholas II was colossal. During the Sventsyansky breakthrough on September 8 - October 2, German troops were defeated and their offensive was stopped. The parties switched to positional warfare: the brilliant Russian counterattacks that followed in the Vilno-Molodechno region and the events that followed made it possible, after the successful September operation, to prepare for a new stage of the war, no longer fearing an enemy offensive. Work began to begin throughout Russia on the formation and training of new troops. Industry was rapidly producing ammunition and military equipment. Such work became possible due to the emerging confidence that the enemy’s advance had been stopped. By the spring of 1917, new armies were created, provided with equipment and ammunition better than ever before during the entire war.

The autumn conscription of 1916 put 13 million people under arms, and losses in the war exceeded 2 million.

By January 1, 1917, changes had also occurred in the State Council. Nicholas expelled 17 members and appointed new ones.

On January 19 (February 1), 1917, a meeting of high-ranking representatives of the Allied powers opened in Petrograd, which went down in history as the Petrograd Conference (q.v.): from the allies of Russia it was attended by delegates from Great Britain, France and Italy, who also visited Moscow and the front, had meetings with politicians of different political orientations, with leaders of Duma factions; the latter unanimously told the head of the British delegation about an imminent revolution - either from below or from above (in the form of a palace coup).

Probing the world

Nicholas II, hoping for an improvement in the situation in the country if the spring offensive of 1917 was successful (as agreed upon at the Petrograd Conference), did not intend to conclude a separate peace with the enemy - he saw the victorious end of the war as the most important means of strengthening the throne. Hints that Russia might begin negotiations for a separate peace were a diplomatic game that forced the Entente to accept the need to establish Russian control over the Straits.

Fall of the Monarchy

Growing revolutionary sentiments

The war, during which there was a widespread mobilization of the working-age male population, horses and massive requisition of livestock and agricultural products, had a detrimental effect on the economy, especially in the countryside. Among the politicized Petrograd society, the authorities were discredited by scandals (in particular, related to the influence of G. E. Rasputin and his henchmen - “dark forces”) and suspicions of treason; Nicholas’s declarative commitment to the idea of “autocratic” power came into sharp conflict with the liberal and leftist aspirations of a significant part of the Duma members and society.

General A.I. Denikin testified about the mood in the army after the revolution: “As for the attitude towards the throne, as a general phenomenon, in the officer corps there was a desire to distinguish the person of the sovereign from the court dirt that surrounded him, from the political mistakes and crimes of the tsar government, which clearly and steadily led to the destruction of the country and the defeat of the army. They forgave the sovereign, they tried to justify him. As we will see below, by 1917, this attitude among a certain part of the officers was shaken, causing the phenomenon that Prince Volkonsky called a “revolution on the right,” but on purely political grounds.”

On February 23, 1917, a strike began in Petrograd; after 3 days it became universal. On the morning of February 27, 1917, the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison revolted and joined the strikers; Only the police provided resistance to riots and riots. A similar uprising took place in Moscow. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, not realizing the seriousness of what was happening, wrote to her husband on February 25: “This is a “hooligan” movement, boys and girls run around shouting that they have no bread just to incite, and the workers do not allow others to work. If it were very cold, they would probably stay at home. But all this will pass and calm down, if only the Duma behaves decently.”

On February 25, 1917, by decree of Nicholas II, meetings of the State Duma were stopped from February 26 to April of the same year, which further inflamed the situation. Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko sent a number of telegrams to the emperor about the events in Petrograd. Telegram received at Headquarters on February 26, 1917 at 22:40: “I most humbly inform Your Majesty that the popular unrest that began in Petrograd is becoming spontaneous and of threatening proportions. Their foundations are the lack of baked bread and the weak supply of flour, inspiring panic, but mainly complete distrust in the authorities, which are unable to lead the country out of a difficult situation.” In a telegram on February 27, 1917 he reported: “The civil war has begun and is flaring up. Order the legislative chambers to be reconvened in order to repeal your Highest decree. If the movement spills over into the army, the collapse of Russia, and with it the dynasty, is inevitable.”

The Duma, which then had high authority in a revolutionary-minded environment, did not obey the decree of February 25 and continued to work in the so-called private meetings of members of the State Duma, convened on the evening of February 27 by the Temporary Committee of the State Duma. The latter assumed the role of the supreme authority immediately upon its formation.

Renunciation

On the evening of February 25, 1917, Nicholas ordered General S.S. Khabalov by telegram to put an end to the unrest by military force. Having sent General N.I. Ivanov to Petrograd on February 27 to suppress the uprising, Nicholas II on the evening of February 28 left for Tsarskoe Selo, but was unable to travel and, having lost contact with Headquarters, on March 1 arrived in Pskov, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front of General N was located. V. Ruzsky. At about 3 p.m. on March 2, he decided to abdicate in favor of his son during the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the evening of the same day he announced to the arriving A.I. Guchkov and V.V. Shulgin about the decision to abdicate for his son.

On March 2 (15) at 23 hours 40 minutes (in the document the time of signing was indicated as 15 hours) Nikolai handed over to Guchkov and Shulgin the Manifesto of Abdication, which, in particular, read: “We command OUR Brother to rule the affairs of the state in complete and inviolable unity with representatives of the people in legislative institutions, on those principles that will be established by them, having taken an inviolable oath. "

Some researchers have questioned the authenticity of the manifesto (renunciation).

Guchkov and Shulgin also demanded that Nicholas II sign two decrees: on the appointment of Prince G. E. Lvov as head of government and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich as supreme commander-in-chief; the former emperor signed decrees, indicating in them the time of 14 hours.

General A.I. Denikin stated in his memoirs that on March 3 in Mogilev, Nikolai told General Alekseev:

A moderately right-wing Moscow newspaper on March 4 reported the emperor’s words to Tuchkov and Shulgin as follows: “I thought about all this,” he said, “and decided to renounce. But I do not abdicate in favor of my son, since I must leave Russia, since I am leaving the Supreme Power. In no case do I consider it possible to leave my son, whom I love very much, in Russia, to leave him in complete obscurity. That’s why I decided to transfer the throne to my brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.”

Exile and execution

From March 9 to August 14, 1917, Nikolai Romanov and his family lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo.

At the end of March, the Minister of the Provisional Government P. N. Milyukov tried to send Nicholas and his family to England, in the care of George V, for which the preliminary consent of the British side was obtained; but in April, due to the unstable internal political situation in England itself, the King chose to abandon such a plan - according to some evidence, against the advice of Prime Minister Lloyd George. However, in 2006, some documents became known indicating that until May 1918, the MI 1 unit of the British Military Intelligence Agency was preparing for an operation to rescue the Romanovs, which was never brought to the stage of practical implementation.

In view of the strengthening of the revolutionary movement and anarchy in Petrograd, the Provisional Government, fearing for the lives of the prisoners, decided to transfer them deep into Russia, to Tobolsk; they were allowed to take the necessary furniture and personal belongings from the palace, and also offer service personnel, if they wish, to voluntarily accompany them to the place of new accommodation and further service. On the eve of departure, the head of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, arrived and brought with him the brother of the former emperor, Mikhail Alexandrovich (Mikhail Alexandrovich was exiled to Perm, where on the night of June 13, 1918 he was killed by local Bolshevik authorities).

On August 14, 1917, at 6:10 a.m., a train with members of the imperial family and servants under the sign “Japanese Red Cross Mission” set off from Tsarskoe Selo. On August 17, the train arrived in Tyumen, then the arrested were transported along the river to Tobolsk. The Romanov family settled in the governor's house, which was specially renovated for their arrival. The family was allowed to walk across the street and boulevard to services at the Church of the Annunciation. The security regime here was much lighter than in Tsarskoe Selo. The family led a calm, measured life.

At the beginning of April 1918, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) authorized the transfer of the Romanovs to Moscow for the purpose of their trial. At the end of April 1918, the prisoners were transported to Yekaterinburg, where a house belonging to mining engineer N.N. was requisitioned to house the Romanovs. Ipatiev. Five service personnel lived with them here: doctor Botkin, footman Trupp, room girl Demidova, cook Kharitonov and cook Sednev.

At the beginning of July 1918, the Ural military commissar F.I. Goloshchekin went to Moscow to receive instructions about the future fate of the royal family, which was being decided on top level Bolshevik leadership (except for V.I. Lenin, Ya. M. Sverdlov took an active part in resolving the issue of the fate of the former tsar).

On July 12, 1918, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies, in the face of the retreat of the Bolsheviks under the pressure of white troops and members of the Constituent Assembly of the Czechoslovak Corps loyal to the Committee, adopted a resolution to execute the entire family. Nikolai Romanov, Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, Doctor Botkin and three servants (except for the cook Sednev) were shot in the “House of Special Purpose” - Ipatiev’s mansion in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Senior investigator for particularly important cases of the General Russian prosecutor's office Vladimir Solovyov, who led the investigation of the criminal case into the death of the royal family, came to the conclusion that Lenin and Sverdlov were against the execution of the royal family, and the execution itself was organized by the Urals Council, where the left Socialist Revolutionaries had enormous influence, in order to disrupt the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and Kaiser's Germany. After the February Revolution, the Germans, despite the war with Russia, were worried about the fate of the Russian imperial family, because the wife of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, was German, and their daughters were both Russian princesses and German princesses.

Religiosity and view of one's power. Church politics

Former member of the Holy Synod in the pre-revolutionary years, Protopresbyter Georgy Shavelsky (closely communicated with the emperor at Headquarters during the World War), while in exile, testified to the tsar’s “humble, simple and direct” religiosity, his strict attendance at Sunday and holiday services, and his “generous outpouring many blessings for the Church." The opposition politician of the early 20th century, V.P. Obninsky, also wrote about his “sincere piety demonstrated during every divine service.” General A. A. Mosolov noted: “The Tsar was thoughtful about his rank as God’s anointed. You should have seen with what attention he considered requests for pardon from those sentenced to death. He received from his father, whom he revered and whom he tried to imitate even in everyday trifles, an unshakable belief in the fate of his power. His calling came from God. He was responsible for his actions only before his conscience and the Almighty. The king answered to his conscience and was guided by intuition, instinct, that incomprehensible thing that is now called the subconscious. He bowed only to the elemental, irrational, and sometimes contrary to reason, to the weightless, to his ever-increasing mysticism.”

Vladimir Gurko, a former comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs, in his émigré essay (1927) emphasized: “Nicholas II’s idea of the limits of the power of the Russian autocrat was at all times wrong. Seeing himself, first of all, as God’s anointed, he considered every decision he made to be legal and essentially correct. “This is my will,” was the phrase that repeatedly flew from his lips and should, in his opinion, stop all objections to the assumption he had expressed. Regis voluntas suprema lex esto - this is the formula with which he was imbued through and through. It was not a belief, it was a religion. Ignoring the law, not recognizing any existing rules, nor ingrained customs was one of the distinguishing features of the last Russian autocrat." This view of the character and nature of his power, according to Gurko, determined the degree of favor of the emperor towards his closest employees: “He disagreed with the ministers not on the basis of disagreements in understanding the procedure for managing this or that branch of the state system, but only because the head any department showed excessive benevolence towards the public, and especially if he did not want and could not recognize the royal power in all cases as unlimited. In most cases, the differences of opinion between the Tsar and his ministers boiled down to the fact that the ministers defended the rule of law, and the Tsar insisted on his omnipotence. As a result, only such ministers as N.A. Maklakov or Stürmer, who agreed to violate any laws in order to maintain ministerial portfolios, retained the favor of the Sovereign.”

The beginning of the 20th century in the life of the Russian Church, the secular head of which he was according to the laws of the Russian Empire, was marked by a movement for reforms in church administration; a significant part of the episcopate and some laity advocated the convening of an All-Russian local council and the possible restoration of the patriarchate in Russia; in 1905 there were attempts to restore the autocephaly of the Georgian Church (then the Georgian Exarchate of the Russian Holy Synod).

Nicholas, in principle, agreed with the idea of a Council; but considered it untimely and in January 1906 established the Pre-Conciliar Presence, and by the Highest Command of February 28, 1912 - “a permanent pre-conciliar meeting under the Holy Synod, until the convening of the Council.”

On March 1, 1916, he ordered “that in the future, reports of the Chief Prosecutor to His Imperial Majesty on matters relating to the internal structure of church life and the essence of church government should be made in the presence of the leading member of the Holy Synod, for the purpose of comprehensive canonical coverage of them,” which was welcomed in the conservative press as “a great act of royal trust”

During his reign, an unprecedented (for the synodal period) large number of canonizations of new saints took place, and he insisted on the canonization of the most famous - Seraphim of Sarov (1903) - despite the reluctance of the chief prosecutor of the Synod, Pobedonostsev; also glorified: Theodosius of Chernigov (1896), Isidor Yuryevsky (1898), Anna Kashinskaya (1909), Euphrosyne of Polotsk (1910), Efrosin of Sinozersky (1911), Iosaf of Belgorod (1911), Patriarch Hermogenes (1913), Pitirim of Tambov (1914 ), John of Tobolsk (1916).

As the interference of Grigory Rasputin (acting through the empress and hierarchs loyal to him) in synodal affairs increased in the 1910s, dissatisfaction with the entire synodal system grew among a significant part of the clergy, who, for the most part, reacted positively to the fall of the monarchy in March 1917.

Lifestyle, habits, hobbies

Most of the time, Nicholas II lived with his family in the Alexander Palace (Tsarskoe Selo) or Peterhof. In the summer I vacationed in Crimea at the Livadia Palace. For recreation, he also annually made two-week trips around the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea on the yacht “Standart”. I read both light entertainment literature and serious scientific works, often on historical topics; Russian and foreign newspapers and magazines. I smoked cigarettes.

He was interested in photography and also loved watching movies; All his children also took photographs. In the 1900s, he became interested in the then new type of transport - cars (“the tsar had one of the most extensive car parks in Europe”).

The official government press in 1913, in an essay about the everyday and family side of the emperor’s life, wrote, in particular: “The Emperor does not like so-called secular pleasures. His favorite pastime is the hereditary passion of the Russian Tsars - hunting. It is arranged both in permanent places of the Tsar’s stay, and in special places adapted for this purpose - in Spala, near Skierniewice, in Belovezhye.”

At the age of 9 he began keeping a diary. The archive contains 50 voluminous notebooks - the original diary for the years 1882-1918; some of them were published.

Family. Spouse's political influence

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The first conscious meeting of Tsarevich Nicholas with his future wife took place in January 1889 (Princess Alice’s second visit to Russia), when mutual attraction arose. That same year, Nikolai asked his father for permission to marry her, but was refused. In August 1890, during Alice's 3rd visit, Nikolai's parents did not allow him to meet her; A letter in the same year to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna from Queen Victoria of England, in which the grandmother of the potential bride probed the prospects of a marriage union, also had a negative result. However, due to the deteriorating health of Alexander III and the persistence of the Tsarevich, on April 8 (old style) 1894 in Coburg at the wedding of the Duke of Hesse Ernst-Ludwig (Alice's brother) and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh (daughter of Duke Alfred and Maria Alexandrovna) Their engagement took place, announced in Russia with a simple newspaper notice.

On November 14, 1894, Nicholas II was married to the German princess Alice of Hesse, who after anointing (performed on October 21, 1894 in Livadia) took the name Alexandra Feodorovna. In subsequent years, they had four daughters - Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatyana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). On July 30 (August 12), 1904, the fifth child and only son, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, appeared in Peterhof.

All correspondence between Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II has been preserved (in English); only one letter from Alexandra Feodorovna was lost, all her letters were numbered by the empress herself; published in Berlin in 1922.

Senator Vl. I. Gurko attributed the origins of Alexandra’s intervention in the affairs of government to the beginning of 1905, when the tsar was in a particularly difficult political situation - when he began to transmit the state acts he issued for her review; Gurko believed: “If the Sovereign, due to his lack of the necessary internal power, did not possess the authority required for a ruler, then the Empress, on the contrary, was entirely woven from authority, which was also based on her inherent arrogance.”

General A. I. Denikin wrote in his memoirs about the role of the empress in the development of the revolutionary situation in Russia in the last years of the monarchy:

“All possible options regarding Rasputin’s influence penetrated the front, and the censorship collected enormous material on this topic, even in letters from soldiers in the army. But the most amazing impression was made by the fatal word:

It referred to the empress. In the army, loudly, not embarrassed by either place or time, there was talk about the empress’s insistent demand for a separate peace, about her betrayal of Field Marshal Kitchener, about whose trip she allegedly informed the Germans, etc. Reliving the past in memory, taking into account that The impression that the rumor about the treason of the empress made in the army, I believe that this circumstance played a huge role in the mood of the army, in its attitude towards both the dynasty and the revolution. General Alekseev, to whom I asked this painful question in the spring of 1917, answered me somehow vaguely and reluctantly:

When sorting through the empress's papers, she found a map with a detailed designation of the troops of the entire front, which was produced only in two copies - for me and for the sovereign. This made a depressing impression on me. You never know who could use it...

Say no more. Changed the conversation... History will undoubtedly reveal the extremely negative influence that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had on the management of the Russian state in the period preceding the revolution. As for the issue of “treason,” this unfortunate rumor was not confirmed by a single fact, and was subsequently refuted by an investigation by the Muravyov Commission specially appointed by the Provisional Government, with the participation of representatives from the Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. »

Personal assessments of his contemporaries who knew him

Different opinions about the willpower of Nicholas II and his accessibility to environmental influences

The former Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Count S. Yu. Witte, in connection with the critical situation on the eve of the publication of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, when the possibility of introducing a military dictatorship in the country was discussed, wrote in his memoirs:

General A.F. Roediger (as Minister of War in 1905-1909, had a personal report to the sovereign twice a week) wrote about him in his memoirs (1917-1918): “Before the start of the report, the sovereign always talked about something extraneous; if there was no other topic, then about the weather, about his walk, about the trial portion that was served to him every day before reports, either from the Convoy or from the Consolidated Regiment. He loved these cookings very much and once told me that he had just tried pearl barley soup, which he could not get at home: Kyuba (his cook) says that such a gain can only be achieved by cooking for a hundred people. The sovereign considered it his duty to appoint senior commanders know. He had an amazing memory. He knew a lot of people who served in the Guard or were seen by him for some reason, remembered the military exploits of individuals and military units, knew the units that rebelled and remained faithful during the unrest, knew the number and name of each regiment, the composition of each division and corps, the location many parts... He told me that in rare cases of insomnia, he begins to list the shelves in his memory in numerical order and usually falls asleep when he reaches the reserve parts, which he does not know so well. To know life in the regiments, he read the orders for the Preobrazhensky Regiment every day and explained to me that he reads them every day, since if you only miss a few days, you will become spoiled and stop reading them. He liked to dress lightly and told me that he sweated differently, especially when he was nervous. At first, he willingly wore a white jacket of a naval style at home, and then, when the riflemen of the imperial family were returned to their old uniform with crimson silk shirts, he almost always wore it at home, moreover, in the summer heat - right on his naked body. Despite the difficult days that befell him, he never lost his composure and always remained calm and affable, an equally diligent worker. He told me that he was an optimist, and indeed, even in difficult moments he retained faith in the future, in the power and greatness of Russia. Always friendly and affectionate, he made a charming impression. His inability to refuse someone’s request, especially if it came from an honored person and was somewhat feasible, sometimes interfered with the matter and put the minister, who had to be strict and update the command staff of the army, in a difficult position, but at the same time increased his charm his personality. His reign was unsuccessful and, moreover, through his own fault. His shortcomings are visible to everyone, they are also visible from my real memories. His merits are easily forgotten, since they were visible only to those who saw him up close, and I consider it my duty to note them, especially since I still remember him with the warmest feeling and sincere regret.”

Communicated closely with the king in recent months Before the revolution, Protopresbyter of the military and naval clergy Georgy Shavelsky, in his study written in exile in the 1930s, wrote about him: “It is generally not easy for kings to recognize the true, unvarnished life, for they are fenced off by a high wall from people and life. And Emperor Nicholas II raised this wall even higher with an artificial superstructure. It was the most characteristic feature his mental disposition and his royal action. This happened against his will, thanks to his manner of treating his subjects. Once he told the Minister of Foreign Affairs S.D. Sazonov: “I try not to think seriously about anything, otherwise I would have been in a grave long ago.” He put his interlocutor within strictly defined limits. The conversation began exclusively apolitical. The sovereign showed great attention and interest in the personality of his interlocutor: in the stages of his service, in his exploits and merits. But as soon as the interlocutor stepped out of this framework - touched upon any ailments of his current life, the sovereign immediately changed or outright stopped the conversation.”

Senator Vladimir Gurko wrote in exile: “The social environment that was close to the heart of Nicholas II, where he, by his own admission, rested his soul, was the environment of guards officers, as a result of which he so willingly accepted invitations to officer meetings of the guards officers who were most familiar to him from their personal composition.” regiments and sometimes sat on them until the morning. He was attracted to officer meetings by the ease that reigned there and the absence of burdensome court etiquette. In many ways, the Tsar retained his childish tastes and inclinations until his old age.”

Awards

Russian

Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (05/20/1868)
Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (05.20.1868)
Order of the White Eagle (05/20/1868)
Order of St. Anne 1st class. (05/20/1868)
Order of St. Stanislaus 1st class. (05/20/1868)
Order of St. Vladimir 4th class. (08/30/1890)
Order of St. George 4th class. (25.10.1915)

Foreign

Highest degrees:

Order of the Wendish Crown (Mecklenburg-Schwerin) (01/09/1879)
Order of the Netherlands Lion (03/15/1881)
Order of Merit of Duke Peter-Friedrich-Ludwig (Oldenburg) (04/15/1881)
Order of the Rising Sun (Japan) (09/04/1882)
Order of Loyalty (Baden) (15.05.1883)
Order of the Golden Fleece (Spain) (05/15/1883)
Order of Christ (Portugal) (05/15/1883)
Order of the White Falcon (Saxe-Weimar) (05/15/1883)
Order of the Seraphim (Sweden) (05/15/1883)
Order of Ludwig (Hesse-Darmstadt) (05/02/1884)
Order of St. Stephen (Austria-Hungary) (05/06/1884)
Order of St. Hubert (Bavaria) (05/06/1884)
Order of Leopold (Belgium) (05/06/1884)
Order of St. Alexander (Bulgaria) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Württemberg Crown (05/06/1884)
Order of the Savior (Greece) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Elephant (Denmark) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem Patriarchate) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Annunciation (Italy) (05/06/1884)
Order of Saint Mauritius and Lazarus (Italy) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Italian Crown (Italy) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Black Eagle (German Empire) (05/06/1884)
Order of the Romanian Star (05/06/1884)
Order of the Legion of Honor (05/06/1884)
Order of Osmaniye (Ottoman Empire) (07/28/1884)
Portrait of the Persian Shah (07/28/1884)
Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil) (09/19/1884)
Order of Noble Bukhara (11/02/1885), with diamond insignia (02/27/1889)
Family Order of the Chakri Dynasty (Siam) (03/08/1891)
Order of the Crown of the State of Bukhara with diamond insignia (11/21/1893)
Order of the Seal of Solomon 1st class. (Ethiopia) (06/30/1895)
Order of the Double Dragon, studded with diamonds (04/22/1896)
Order of the Sun of Alexander (Bukhara Emirate) (05/18/1898)
Order of the Bath (Britain)
Order of the Garter (Britain)
Royal Victorian Order (British) (1904)
Order of Charles I (Romania) (06/15/1906)

After death

Assessment in Russian emigration

In the preface to his memoirs, General A. A. Mosolov, who was for a number of years in the emperor’s close circle, wrote in the early 1930s: “Sovereign Nicholas II, His family and His entourage were almost the only object of accusation for many circles , representing Russian public opinion of the pre-revolutionary era. After the catastrophic collapse of our fatherland, accusations focused almost exclusively on the Sovereign.” General Mosolov assigned a special role in turning society away from the imperial family and from the throne in general to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: “the discord between society and the court became so aggravated that society, instead of supporting the throne according to its deep-rooted monarchical views, turned away from it and looked at his downfall with real gloating.”

From the beginning of the 1920s, monarchist-minded circles of the Russian emigration published works about the last tsar, which had an apologetic (later also hagiographic) character and a propaganda orientation; The most famous among these was the study of Professor S. S. Oldenburg, published in 2 volumes in Belgrade (1939) and Munich (1949), respectively. One of Oldenburg’s final conclusions was: “The most difficult and most forgotten feat of Emperor Nicholas II was that He, under incredibly difficult conditions, brought Russia to the threshold of victory: His opponents did not allow her to cross this threshold.”

Official assessment in the USSR

An article about him in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1st edition; 1939): “Nicholas II was as limited and ignorant as his father. The inherent traits of Nicholas II of a stupid, narrow-minded, suspicious and proud despot during his stay on the throne received especially vivid expression. The mental squalor and moral decay of court circles reached extreme limits. The regime was rotting at the root Until the last minute, Nicholas II remained what he was - a stupid autocrat, unable to understand either the surrounding situation or even his own benefit. He was preparing to march on Petrograd in order to drown the revolutionary movement in blood and, together with the generals close to him, discussed a plan of treason. »

The later (post-war) Soviet historiographical publications, intended for a wide circle, in describing the history of Russia during the reign of Nicholas II, sought, as far as possible, to avoid mentioning him as a person and personality: for example, “A Manual on the History of the USSR for Preparatory Departments of Universities” ( 1979) on 82 pages of text (without illustrations), outlining the socio-economic and political development of the Russian Empire in a given period, mentions the name of the emperor who stood at the head of the state at the time described, only once - when describing the events of his abdication in favor of his brother (nothing is said about his accession; the name of V.I. Lenin is mentioned 121 times on the same pages).

Church veneration

On October 19 (November 1), 1981, Emperor Nicholas and his family were glorified by the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR), which then had no church communion with the Moscow Patriarchate in the USSR.

Decision of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of August 20, 2000: “Glorify as passion-bearers in the host of new martyrs and confessors of Russia Royal Family: Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexy, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia." Memorial Day: July 4 (17).

The act of canonization was received ambiguously by Russian society: opponents of canonization claim that the proclamation of Nicholas II as a saint was of a political nature.

In 2003, in Yekaterinburg, on the site of the demolished house of engineer N.N. Ipatiev, where Nicholas II and his family were shot, the Church on the Blood was built? in the name of All Saints who shone in the Russian land, in front of which there is a monument to the family of Nicholas II.

Rehabilitation. Identification of remains

In December 2005, a representative of the head of the “Russian Imperial House” Maria Vladimirovna Romanova sent to the Russian Prosecutor’s Office an application for the rehabilitation of the executed former Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family as victims of political repression. According to the application, after a number of refusals to satisfy, on October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made a decision (despite the opinion of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, who stated in court that the requirements for rehabilitation do not comply with the provisions of the law due to the fact that these persons were not arrested for political reasons , and no judicial decision was made to execute) on the rehabilitation of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family.

In December 2008, at a scientific and practical conference held on the initiative of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, with the participation of geneticists from Russia and the United States, it was stated that the remains found in 1991 near Yekaterinburg and interred on June 17, 1998 in the Catherine's chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral (St. Petersburg), belong to Nicholas II. In January 2009, the Investigative Committee completed a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the death and burial of the family of Nicholas II; the investigation was terminated “due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution and the death of persons who committed premeditated murder”

A representative of M.V. Romanova, who calls herself the head of the Russian Imperial House, stated in 2009 that “Maria Vladimirovna fully shares on this issue the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has not found sufficient grounds for recognizing the “Ekaterinburg remains” as belonging to members of the Royal Family.” Other representatives of the Romanovs, led by N. R. Romanov, took a different position: the latter, in particular, took part in the burial of the remains in July 1998, saying: “We came to close the era.”

Monuments to Emperor Nicholas II

Even during the life of the last Emperor, no less than twelve monuments were erected in his honor, related to his visits to various cities and military camps. Basically, these monuments were columns or obelisks with an imperial monogram and a corresponding inscription. The only monument, which was a bronze bust of the Emperor on a high granite pedestal, was erected in Helsingfors for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. To this day, none of these monuments have survived. (Sokol K. G. Monumental monuments of the Russian Empire. Catalog. M., 2006, pp. 162-165)

Ironically, the first monument to the Russian Tsar-Martyr was erected in 1924 in Germany by the Germans who fought with Russia - officers of one of the Prussian regiments, whose Chief was Emperor Nicholas II, “erected a worthy monument to Him in an extremely honorable place.”

Currently, monumental monuments to Emperor Nicholas II, from small busts to full-length bronze statues, are installed in the following cities and towns:

village Vyritsa, Gatchina district, Leningrad region. On the territory of the mansion of S.V. Vasiliev. Bronze statue of the Emperor on a high pedestal. Opened in 2007
ur. Ganina Yama, near Yekaterinburg. In the complex of the monastery of saints Royal Passion-Bearers. Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened in the 2000s.
Yekaterinburg city. Next to the Church of All Saints who shone forth in the Russian Land (Church on the Blood). The bronze composition includes figures of the Emperor and members of His Family. Opened on July 16, 2003, sculptors K.V. Grunberg and A.G. Mazaev.
With. Klementyevo (near Sergiev Posad) Moscow region. Behind the altar of the Assumption Church. Plaster bust on a pedestal. Opened in 2007
Kursk. Next to the Church of Saints Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia (Druzhby Ave.). Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened on September 24, 2003, sculptor V. M. Klykov.
Moscow city. At the Vagankovskoye cemetery, next to the Church of the Resurrection of the Word. A memorial monument consisting of a marble worship cross and four granite slabs with carved inscriptions. Opened on May 19, 1991, sculptor N. Pavlov. On July 19, 1997, the memorial was seriously damaged by an explosion; it was subsequently restored, but was damaged again in November 2003.
Podolsk, Moscow region. On the territory of the estate of V.P. Melikhov, next to the Church of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. The first plaster monument by sculptor V. M. Klykov, which was a full-length statue of the Emperor, was opened on July 28, 1998, but was blown up on November 1, 1998. A new, this time bronze, monument based on the same model was reopened on January 16, 1999.
Pushkin. Near the Feodorovsky Sovereign Cathedral. Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened on July 17, 1993, sculptor V.V. Zaiko.
Saint Petersburg. Behind the altar of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (Ligovsky Ave., 128). Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened on May 19, 2002, sculptor S. Yu. Alipov.
Sochi. On the territory of St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral. Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened on November 21, 2008, sculptor V. Zelenko.
village Syrostan (near the city of Miass) Chelyabinsk region. Near the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened in July 1996, sculptor P. E. Lyovochkin.
With. Taininskoye (near the city of Mytishchi) Moscow region. A full-length statue of the Emperor on a high pedestal. Opened on May 26, 1996, sculptor V. M. Klykov. On April 1, 1997, the monument was blown up, but three years later it was restored using the same model and reopened on August 20, 2000.
village Shushenskoye, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Next to the factory entrance of Shushenskaya Marka LLC (Pionerskaya St., 10). Bronze bust on a pedestal. Opened on December 24, 2010, sculptor K. M. Zinich.

In 2007, at the Russian Academy of Arts, sculptor Z. K. Tsereteli presented a monumental bronze composition consisting of figures of the Emperor and members of His Family standing before the executioners in the basement of the Ipatiev House, and depicting the last minutes of their lives. To date, not a single city has yet expressed a desire to install this monument.

Memorial temples - monuments to the Emperor include:

Temple - a monument to the Tsar - Martyr Nicholas II in Brussels. It was founded on February 2, 1936, built according to the design of the architect N.I. Istselenov, and solemnly consecrated on October 1, 1950 by Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky). The temple-monument is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church (z).
Church of All Saints who shone forth in the Russian Land (Church - on - Blood) in Yekaterinburg. (about him, see a separate article on Wikipedia)

Filmography

Several feature films have been made about Nicholas II and his family, among which are “Agony” (1981), the English-American film “Nicholas and Alexandra” ( Nicholas and Alexandra, 1971) and two Russian films “The Regicide” (1991) and “The Romanovs. The Crowned Family" (2000). Hollywood made several films about the supposedly saved daughter of the Tsar Anastasia “Anastasia” ( Anastasia, 1956) and “Anastasia, or the secret of Anna” ( , USA, 1986), as well as the cartoon “Anastasia” ( Anastasia, USA, 1997).

Film incarnations

Alexander Galibin (The Life of Klim Samgin 1987, “The Romanovs. The Crowned Family” (2000)
Anatoly Romashin (Agony 1974/1981)
Oleg Yankovsky (The Kingslayer)
Andrey Rostotsky (Split 1993, Dreams 1993, His cross)
Andrey Kharitonov (Sins of the Fathers 2004)
Borislav Brondukov (Kotsyubinsky Family)
Gennady Glagolev (Pale Horse)
Nikolay Burlyaev (Admiral)
Michael Jayston ("Nicholas and Alexandra" Nicholas and Alexandra, 1971)
Omar Sharif (“Anastasia, or the Secret of Anna” Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, USA, 1986)
Ian McKellen (Rasputin, USA, 1996)
Alexander Galibin (“The Life of Klim Samgin” 1987, “The Romanovs. The Crowned Family”, 2000)
Oleg Yankovsky (“The Kingslayer”, 1991)
Andrey Rostotsky (“Raskol”, 1993, “Dreams”, 1993, “Your Cross”)
Vladimir Baranov (Russian Ark, 2002)
Gennady Glagolev (“White Horse”, 2003)
Andrei Kharitonov (“Sins of the Fathers”, 2004)
Andrey Nevraev (“Death of an Empire”, 2005)
Evgeny Stychkin (You are my happiness, 2005)
Mikhail Eliseev (Stolypin...Unlearned Lessons, 2006)
Yaroslav Ivanov (“Conspiracy”, 2007)
Nikolay Burlyaev (“Admiral”, 2008)

Professor Sergei Mironenko about the personality and fatal mistakes of the last Russian emperor

In the year of the 100th anniversary of the revolution, conversations about Nicholas II and his role in the tragedy of 1917 do not stop: truth and myths are often mixed in these conversations. Scientific director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Sergei Mironenko- about Nicholas II as a man, ruler, family man, passion-bearer.

“Nicky, you’re just some kind of Muslim!”

Sergei Vladimirovich, in one of your interviews you called Nicholas II “frozen.” What did you mean? What was the emperor like as a person, as a person?

Nicholas II loved the theater, opera and ballet, and loved physical exercise. He had unpretentious tastes. He liked to drink a glass or two of vodka. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled that when they were young, he and Niki once sat on the sofa and kicked with their feet, who would knock whom off the sofa. Or another example - a diary entry during a visit to relatives in Greece about how wonderfully he and his cousin Georgie were left with oranges. He was already quite a grown-up young man, but something childish remained in him: throwing oranges, kicking. Absolutely alive person! But still, it seems to me, he was some kind of... not a daredevil, not “eh!” You know, sometimes meat is fresh, and sometimes it’s first frozen and then defrosted, do you understand? In this sense - “frostbitten”.

Sergey Mironenko
Photo: DP28

Restrained? Many noted that he very dryly described terrible events in his diary: the shooting of a demonstration and the lunch menu were nearby. Or that the emperor remained absolutely calm when receiving difficult news from the front of the Japanese War. What does this indicate?

In the imperial family, keeping a diary was one of the elements of education. A person was taught to write down at the end of the day what happened to him, and thus give himself an account of how you lived that day. If the diaries of Nicholas II were used for the history of weather, then this would be a wonderful source. “Morning, so many degrees of frost, got up at such and such time.” Always! Plus or minus: “sunny, windy” - he always wrote it down.

His grandfather Emperor Alexander II kept similar diaries. The War Ministry published small commemorative books: each sheet is divided into three days, and Alexander II managed to write down his entire day on such a small sheet of paper all day, from the moment he got up until he went to bed. Of course, this was a recording of only the formal side of life. Basically, Alexander II wrote down who he received, with whom he had lunch, with whom he had dinner, where he was, at a review or somewhere else, etc. Rarely, rarely does something emotional break through. In 1855, when his father, Emperor Nicholas I, was dying, he wrote down: “It’s such and such an hour. The last terrible torment." This is a different type of diary! And Nikolai’s emotional assessments are extremely rare. In general, he apparently was an introvert by nature.

- Today you can often see in the press a certain average image of Tsar Nicholas II: a man of noble aspirations, an exemplary family man, but a weak politician. How true is this image?

As for the fact that one image has become established, this is wrong. There are diametrically opposed points of view. For example, academician Yuri Sergeevich Pivovarov claims that Nicholas II was large, successful statesman. Well, you yourself know that there are many monarchists who bow to Nicholas II.

I think that this is just the right image: he really was a very good person, a wonderful family man and, of course, a deeply religious man. But as a politician, I was absolutely out of place, I would say so.

Coronation of Nicholas II

When Nicholas II ascended the throne, he was 26 years old. Why, despite his brilliant education, was he not ready to be a king? And there is evidence that he did not want to ascend the throne and was burdened by it?

Behind me are the diaries of Nicholas II, which we published: if you read them, everything becomes clear. He was actually a very responsible person, he understood the whole burden of responsibility that fell on his shoulders. But, of course, he did not think that his father, Emperor Alexander III, would die at 49, he thought that he still had some time left. Nicholas was burdened by the ministers' reports. Although one can have different attitudes towards Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, I believe he was absolutely right when he wrote about the traits characteristic of Nicholas II. For example, he said that with Nikolai, the one who came to him last is right. Various issues are being discussed, and Nikolai takes the point of view of the one who came into his office last. Maybe this was not always the case, but this is a certain vector that Alexander Mikhailovich is talking about.

Another of his features is fatalism. Nikolai believed that since he was born on May 6, the day of Job the Long-Suffering, he was destined to suffer. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich told him: “Niki (that was Nikolai’s name in the family), you're just some kind of Muslim! We have the Orthodox faith, it gives free will, and your life depends on you, there is no such fatalistic destiny in our faith.” But Nikolai was sure that he was destined to suffer.

In one of your lectures you said that he really suffered a lot. Do you think that this was somehow connected with his mentality and attitude?

You see, every person makes his own destiny. If you think from the very beginning that you are made to suffer, in the end you will in life!

The main misfortune, of course, is that they had a terminally ill child. This cannot be discounted. And it turned out literally immediately after birth: the Tsarevich’s umbilical cord was bleeding... This, of course, frightened the family; they hid for a very long time that their child had hemophilia. For example, the sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Ksenia, found out about this almost 8 years after the heir was born!

Then, difficult situations in politics - Nicholas was not ready to rule the vast Russian Empire in such a difficult period of time.

About the birth of Tsarevich Alexei

The summer of 1904 was marked a joyful event, the birth of the unfortunate crown prince. Russia had been waiting for an heir for so long, and how many times had this hope turned into disappointment that his birth was greeted with enthusiasm, but the joy did not last long. Even in our house there was despondency. The uncle and aunt undoubtedly knew that the child was born with hemophilia, a disease characterized by bleeding due to the inability of the blood to clot quickly. Of course, the parents quickly learned about the nature of their son’s illness. One can imagine what a terrible blow this was for them; from that moment on, the empress’s character began to change, and her health, both physical and mental, began to deteriorate from painful experiences and constant anxiety.

- But he was prepared for this from childhood, like any heir!

You see, whether you cook or not, you can’t discount a person’s personal qualities. If you read his correspondence with his bride, who later became Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, you will see that he writes to her about how he rode twenty miles and feels good, and she writes to him about how she was in church, how she prayed. Their correspondence shows everything, from the very beginning! Do you know what he called her? He called her “owl”, and she called him “calf”. Even this one detail gives a clear picture of their relationship.

Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

Initially, the family was against his marriage to the Princess of Hesse. Can we say that Nicholas II showed character here, some strong-willed qualities, insisting on his own?

They weren't entirely against it. They wanted to marry him to a French princess - because of the turn in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire from an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary to an alliance with France that emerged in the early 90s of the 19th century. Alexander III wanted to strengthen family ties with the French, but Nicholas categorically refused. Little known fact- Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna, when Alexander was still only the heir to the throne, became the successors of Alice of Hesse, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: they were the young godmother and father! So, there were still connections. And Nikolai wanted to get married at all costs.

- But he was still a follower?

Of course there was. You see, we must distinguish between stubbornness and will. Very often weak-willed people are stubborn. I think that in a certain sense Nikolai was like that. There are wonderful moments in their correspondence with Alexandra Fedorovna. Especially during the war, when she writes to him: “Be Peter the Great, be Ivan the Terrible!” and then adds: “I see how you smile.” She writes to him “be,” but she herself understands perfectly well that he cannot be, by character, the same as his father was.

For Nikolai, his father was always an example. He wanted, of course, to be like him, but he couldn’t.

Dependence on Rasputin led Russia to destruction

- How strong was Alexandra Feodorovna’s influence on the emperor?

Alexandra Fedorovna had a huge influence on him. And through Alexandra Feodorovna - Rasputin. And, by the way, relations with Rasputin became one of the rather strong catalysts for the revolutionary movement and general dissatisfaction with Nicholas. It was not so much the figure of Rasputin himself that caused discontent, but the image created by the press of a dissolute old man who influences political decision-making. Add to this the suspicion that Rasputin is a German agent, which was fueled by the fact that he was against the war with Germany. Rumors spread that Alexandra Fedorovna was a German spy. In general, everything rolled along a well-known road, which ultimately led to renunciation...

Caricature of Rasputin

Peter Stolypin

- What other political mistakes became fatal?

There were many of them. One of them is distrust of outstanding statesmen. Nikolai could not save them, he could not! The example of Stolypin is very indicative in this sense. Stolypin is truly an outstanding person. Outstanding not only and not so much because he uttered in the Duma those words that are now being repeated by everyone: “You need great upheavals, but we need a great Russia.”

That's not why! But because he understood: the main obstacle in a peasant country is the community. And he firmly pursued the policy of destroying the community, and this was contrary to the interests of a fairly wide range of people. After all, when Stolypin arrived in Kyiv as prime minister in 1911, he was already a “lame duck.” The issue of his resignation was resolved. He was killed, but the end of his political career came earlier.

In history, as you know, there is no subjunctive mood. But I really want to dream up. What if Stolypin had been at the head of the government longer, if he had not been killed, if the situation had turned out differently, what would have happened? If Russia had so recklessly entered into a war with Germany, would the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand be worth getting involved in this world war?..

1908 Tsarskoye Selo. Rasputin with the Empress, five children and governess

However, I really want to use the subjunctive mood. The events taking place in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century seem so spontaneous, irreversible - the absolute monarchy has outlived its usefulness, and sooner or later what happened would have happened; the personality of the tsar did not play a decisive role. This is wrong?

You know, this question, from my point of view, is useless, because the task of history is not to guess what would have happened if, but to explain why it happened this way and not otherwise. This has already happened. But why did it happen? After all, history has many paths, but for some reason it chooses one out of many, why?

Why did it happen that the previously very friendly, close-knit Romanov family (the ruling house of the Romanovs) turned out to be completely split by 1916? Nikolai and his wife were alone, but the whole family - I emphasize, the whole family - was against it! Yes, Rasputin played his role - the family split largely because of him. Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, tried to talk to her about Rasputin, to dissuade her - it was useless! Nicholas's mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, tried to speak - it was useless.

In the end, it came to a grand-ducal conspiracy. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, the beloved cousin of Nicholas II, took part in the murder of Rasputin. Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich wrote to Maria Feodorovna: “The hypnotist has been killed, now it’s the hypnotized woman’s turn, she must disappear.”

They all saw that this indecisive policy, this dependence on Rasputin was leading Russia to destruction, but they could not do anything! They thought that they would kill Rasputin and things would somehow get better, but they didn’t get better - everything had gone too far. Nikolai believed that relations with Rasputin were a private matter of his family, in which no one had the right to interfere. He did not understand that the emperor could not have a private relationship with Rasputin, that the matter had taken a political turn. And he cruelly miscalculated, although as a person one can understand him. So personality definitely matters a lot!

About Rasputin and his murder
From memories Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

Everything that happened to Russia thanks to the direct or indirect influence of Rasputin can, in my opinion, be considered as a vengeful expression of the dark, terrible, all-consuming hatred that for centuries burned in the soul of the Russian peasant in relation to the upper classes, who did not try to understand him or attract him to your side. Rasputin loved both the empress and the emperor in his own way. He felt sorry for them, as one feels sorry for children who have made a mistake due to the fault of adults. They both liked his apparent sincerity and kindness. His speeches - they had never heard anything like it before - attracted them with its simple logic and novelty. The emperor himself sought closeness with his people. But Rasputin, who had no education and was not accustomed to such an environment, was spoiled by the boundless trust that his high patrons showed him.

Emperor Nicholas II and Supreme Commander-in-Chief led. Prince Nikolai Nikolaevich during the inspection of the fortifications of the Przemysl fortress

Is there evidence that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna directly influenced her husband’s specific political decisions?

Certainly! At one time there was a book by Kasvinov, “23 Steps Down,” about the murder of the royal family. So, one of the most serious political mistakes of Nicholas II was the decision to become the supreme commander in chief in 1915. This was, if you like, the first step to renunciation!

- And only Alexandra Fedorovna supported this decision?

She convinced him! Alexandra Feodorovna was a very strong-willed, very smart and very cunning woman. What was she fighting for? For the future of their son. She was afraid that Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in 1914-1915 - ed.), who was very popular in the army, will deprive Niki of the throne and become emperor himself. Let's leave aside the question of whether this really happened.

But, believing in Nikolai Nikolaevich’s desire to take the Russian throne, the empress began to engage in intrigue. “In this difficult time of testing, only you can lead the army, you must do it, this is your duty,” she persuaded her husband. And Nikolai succumbed to her persuasion, sent his uncle to command the Caucasian Front and took command of the Russian army. He did not listen to his mother, who begged him not to take a disastrous step - she just perfectly understood that if he became commander-in-chief, all failures at the front would be associated with his name; nor the eight ministers who wrote him a petition; nor the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko.

The emperor left the capital, lived for months at headquarters, and as a result was unable to return to the capital, where a revolution took place in his absence.

Emperor Nicholas II and front commanders at a meeting of Headquarters

Nicholas II at the front

Nicholas II with generals Alekseev and Pustovoitenko at Headquarters

What kind of person was the empress? You said - strong-willed, smart. But at the same time, she gives the impression of a sad, melancholy, cold, closed person...

I wouldn't say she was cold. Read their letters - after all, in letters a person opens up. She is a passionate, loving woman. A powerful woman who fights for what she considers necessary, fighting for the throne to be passed on to her son, despite his terminal illness. You can understand her, but, in my opinion, she lacked breadth of vision.

We will not talk about why Rasputin acquired such influence over her. I am deeply convinced that the matter is not only about the sick Tsarevich Alexei, whom he helped. The fact is, the empress herself needed a person who would support her in this hostile world. She arrived, shy, embarrassed, and in front of her was the rather strong Empress Maria Feodorovna, whom the court loved. Maria Fedorovna loves balls, but Alix doesn’t like balls. St. Petersburg society is accustomed to dancing, accustomed, accustomed to having fun, but the new empress is a completely different person.

Nicholas II with his mother Maria Fedorovna

Nicholas II with his wife

Nicholas II with Alexandra Feodorovna

Gradually, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law gets worse and worse. And in the end it comes to a complete break. Maria Fedorovna, in her last diary before the revolution, in 1916, calls Alexandra Fedorovna only “fury.” “This fury” - she can’t even write her name...

Elements of the great crisis that led to abdication

- However, Nikolai and Alexandra were a wonderful family, right?

Of course, a wonderful family! They sit, read books to each other, their correspondence is wonderful and tender. They love each other, they are spiritually close, physically close, they have wonderful children. Children are different, some of them are more serious, some, like Anastasia, are more mischievous, some smoke secretly.

About the atmosphere in Nikolai’s family II and Alexandra Feodorovna
From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

The Emperor and his wife were always affectionate in their relationships with each other and with their children, and it was so pleasant to be in an atmosphere of love and family happiness.

At a costume ball. 1903

But after the murder of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (Governor General of Moscow, uncle of Nicholas II, husband of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna - ed.) in 1905, the family locked themselves in Tsarskoye Selo, not a single big ball again, the last big ball took place in 1903, a costume ball, where Nikolai dressed as Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexandra dressed as the queen. And then they become more and more isolated.

Alexandra Fedorovna did not understand a lot of things, did not understand the situation in the country. For example, failures in the war... When they tell you that Russia almost won the First World War, do not believe it. A serious socio-economic crisis was growing in Russia. First of all, it manifested itself in the inability of the railways to cope with freight flows. It was impossible to simultaneously transport food to large cities and transport military supplies to the front. Despite the railway boom that began under Witte in the 1880s, Russia, compared to European countries, had a poorly developed railway network.

Groundbreaking ceremony for the Trans-Siberian Railway

- Despite the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, was this not enough for such a large country?

Absolutely! This was not enough; the railways could not cope. Why am I talking about this? When food shortages began in Petrograd and Moscow, what does Alexandra Fedorovna write to her husband? "Our Friend advises (Friend – that’s what Alexandra Fedorovna called Rasputin in her correspondence. – ed.): order one or two wagons with food to be attached to each train that is sent to the front.” To write something like this means that you are completely unaware of what is happening. This is a search for simple solutions, solutions to a problem whose roots do not lie in this at all! What is one or two carriages for the multimillion-dollar Petrograd and Moscow?..

Yet it grew!

Prince Felix Yusupov, participant in the conspiracy against Rasputin

Two or three years ago we received the Yusupov archive - Viktor Fedorovich Vekselberg bought it and donated it to the State Archives. This archive contains letters from teacher Felix Yusupov in the Corps of Pages, who went with Yusupov to Rakitnoye, where he was exiled after participating in the murder of Rasputin. Two weeks before the revolution he returned to Petrograd. And he writes to Felix, who is still in Rakitnoye: “Can you imagine that in two weeks I have not seen or eaten a single piece of meat?” No meat! Bakeries are closed because there is no flour. And this is not the result of some malicious conspiracy, as is sometimes written about, which is complete nonsense and nonsense. And evidence of the crisis that has gripped the country.

The leader of the Kadet Party, Miliukov, speaks in the State Duma - he seems to be a wonderful historian, a wonderful person, but what does he say from the Duma rostrum? He throws accusation after accusation at the government, of course, addressing them to Nicholas II, and ends each passage with the words: “What is this? Stupidity or treason? The word “treason” has already been thrown around.

It's always easy to blame your failures on someone else. It’s not us who fight badly, it’s treason! Rumors begin to circulate that the Empress has a direct golden cable laid from Tsarskoe Selo to Wilhelm’s headquarters, that she is selling state secrets. When she arrives at headquarters, the officers are defiantly silent in her presence. It's like a snowball growing! The economy, the railway crisis, failures at the front, the political crisis, Rasputin, the family split - all these are elements of a great crisis, which ultimately led to the abdication of the emperor and the collapse of the monarchy.

By the way, I am sure that those people who thought about the abdication of Nicholas II, and he himself, did not at all imagine that this was the end of the monarchy. Why? Because they had no experience of political struggle, they did not understand that horses cannot be changed in midstream! Therefore, the commanders of the fronts, one and all, wrote to Nicholas that in order to save the Motherland and continue the war, he must abdicate the throne.

About the situation at the beginning of the war

From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

At the beginning the war was successful. Every day a crowd of Muscovites staged patriotic demonstrations in the park opposite our house. People in the front rows held flags and portraits of the Emperor and Empress. With their heads uncovered, they sang the national anthem, shouted words of approval and greeting, and calmly dispersed. People perceived it as entertainment. Enthusiasm took on more and more violent forms, but the authorities did not want to interfere with this expression of loyal feelings, people refused to leave the square and disperse. The last gathering turned into rampant drinking and ended with bottles and rocks being thrown at our windows. The police were called and lined up along the sidewalk to block access to our house. Excited shouts and dull murmurs from the crowd could be heard from the street all night.

About the bomb in the temple and changing moods

From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

On the eve of Easter, when we were in Tsarskoe Selo, a conspiracy was discovered. Two members of a terrorist organization, disguised as singers, tried to sneak into the choir, which sang at services in the palace church. Apparently, they planned to carry bombs under their clothes and detonate them in the church during the Easter service. The emperor, although he knew about the conspiracy, went with his family to church as usual. Many people were arrested that day. Nothing happened, but it was the saddest service I have ever attended.

Abdication of the throne by Emperor Nicholas II.

There are still myths about the abdication - that it had no legal force, or that the emperor was forced to abdicate...

This just surprises me! How can you say such nonsense? You see, the renunciation manifesto was published in all newspapers, in all of them! And in the year and a half that Nikolai lived after this, he never once said: “No, they forced me to do this, this is not my real renunciation!”

The attitude towards the emperor and empress in society is also “steps down”: from admiration and devotion to ridicule and aggression?

When Rasputin was killed, Nicholas II was at headquarters in Mogilev, and the Empress was in the capital. What is she doing? Alexandra Fedorovna calls the Petrograd Chief of Police and gives orders to arrest Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Yusupov, participants in the murder of Rasputin. This caused an explosion of indignation in the family. Who is she?! What right does she have to give orders to arrest someone? This proves 100% who rules us - not Nikolai, but Alexandra!

Then the family (mother, grand dukes and grand duchesses) turned to Nikolai with a request not to punish Dmitry Pavlovich. Nikolai put a resolution on the document: “I am surprised by your appeal to me. No one is allowed to kill! A decent answer? Of course yes! No one dictated this to him, he himself wrote it from the depths of his soul.

In general, Nicholas II as a person can be respected - he was an honest, decent person. But not too smart and without a strong will.

“I don’t feel sorry for myself, but I feel sorry for the people”

Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna

The famous phrase of Nicholas II after his abdication: “I don’t feel sorry for myself, but feel sorry for the people.” He really rooted for the people, for the country. How much did he know his people?

Let me give you an example from another area. When Maria Feodorovna married Alexander Alexandrovich and when they - then the Tsarevich and the Tsarevna - were traveling around Russia, she described such a situation in her diary. She, who grew up in a rather poor but democratic Danish royal court, could not understand why her beloved Sasha did not want to communicate with the people. He doesn’t want to leave the ship on which they were traveling to see the people, he doesn’t want to accept bread and salt, he’s absolutely not interested in all this.

But she arranged it so that he had to get off at one of the points on their route where they landed. He did everything flawlessly: he received the elders, bread and salt, and charmed everyone. He came back and... gave her a wild scandal: he stomped his feet and broke a lamp. She was terrified! Her sweet and beloved Sasha, who throws a kerosene lamp on the wooden floor, is about to set everything on fire! She couldn't understand why? Because the unity of the king and the people was like a theater where everyone played their roles.

Even chronicle footage of Nicholas II sailing away from Kostroma in 1913 has been preserved. People go chest-deep into the water, stretch out their hands to him, this is the Tsar-Father... and after 4 years these same people sing shameful ditties about both the Tsar and the Tsarina!

- The fact that, for example, his daughters were sisters of mercy, was that also theater?

No, I think it was sincere. They were, after all, deeply religious people, and, of course, Christianity and charity are practically synonymous. The girls really were sisters of mercy, Alexandra Fedorovna really assisted during operations. Some of the daughters liked it, some not so much, but they were no exception among the imperial family, among the House of Romanov. They gave up their palaces for hospitals - there was a hospital in the Winter Palace, and not only the emperor’s family, but also other grand duchesses. Men fought, and women did mercy. So mercy is not just ostentatious.

Princess Tatiana in the hospital

Alexandra Fedorovna - sister of mercy

Princesses with the wounded in the infirmary of Tsarskoe Selo, winter 1915-16

But in a sense, any court action, any court ceremony is a theater, with its own script, with its own characters, and so on.

Nikolay II and Alexandra Fedorovna in the hospital for the wounded

From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

The Empress, who spoke Russian very well, walked around the wards and talked for a long time with each patient. I walked behind and not so much listened to the words - she told everyone the same thing - but watched the expressions on their faces. Despite the empress's sincere sympathy for the suffering of the wounded, something prevented her from expressing her true feelings and comforting those to whom she addressed. Although she spoke Russian correctly and almost without an accent, people did not understand her: her words did not find a response in their souls. They looked at her in fear when she approached and started a conversation. I visited hospitals with the emperor more than once. His visits looked different. The Emperor behaved simply and charmingly. With his appearance, a special atmosphere of joy arose. Despite his small stature, he always seemed taller than everyone present and moved from bed to bed with extraordinary dignity. After a short conversation with him, the expression of anxious expectation in the eyes of the patients was replaced by joyful animation.

1917 - This year marks the 100th anniversary of the revolution. How, in your opinion, should we talk about it, how should we approach discussing this topic? Ipatiev House

How was the decision made about their canonization? “Digged”, as you say, weighed. After all, the commission did not immediately declare him a martyr; there were quite big disputes on this matter. It was not in vain that he was canonized as a passion-bearer, as one who gave his life for the Orthodox faith. Not because he was an emperor, not because he was an outstanding statesman, but because he did not abandon Orthodoxy. Until the very end of their martyrdom, the royal family constantly invited priests to serve mass, even in the Ipatiev House, not to mention Tobolsk. The family of Nicholas II was a deeply religious family.

- But even about canonization there are different opinions.

They were canonized as passion-bearers - what different opinions could there be?

Some insist that the canonization was hasty and politically motivated. What can I say to this?

From the report of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, pChairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints at the Bishops' Jubilee Council

... Behind the many sufferings endured by the Royal Family over the last 17 months of their lives, which ended with execution in the basement of the Ekaterinburg Ipatiev House on the night of July 17, 1918, we see people who sincerely sought to embody the commandments of the Gospel in their lives. In the suffering endured by the Royal Family in captivity with meekness, patience and humility, in their martyrdom, the evil-conquering light of Christ's faith was revealed, just as it shone in the life and death of millions of Orthodox Christians who suffered persecution for Christ in the twentieth century. It is in understanding this feat of the Royal Family that the Commission, in complete unanimity and with the approval of the Holy Synod, finds it possible to glorify in the Council the new martyrs and confessors of Russia in the guise of the passion-bearers Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexy, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

- How do you generally assess the level of discussions about Nicholas II, about the imperial family, about 1917 today?

What is a discussion? How can you debate with the ignorant? In order to say something, a person must know at least something; if he does not know anything, it is useless to discuss with him. So much garbage has appeared about the royal family and the situation in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century in recent years. But what is encouraging is that there are also very serious works, for example, studies by Boris Nikolaevich Mironov, Mikhail Abramovich Davydov, who are engaged in economic history. So Boris Nikolaevich Mironov has a wonderful work, where he analyzed the metric data of people who were called up for military service. When a person was called up for service, his height, weight, and so on were measured. Mironov was able to establish that in the fifty years that passed after the liberation of the serfs, the height of conscripts increased by 6-7 centimeters!

- So you started eating better?

Certainly! Life has become better! But what did Soviet historiography talk about? “Aggravation, higher than usual, of the needs and misfortunes of the oppressed classes,” “relative impoverishment,” “absolute impoverishment,” and so on. In fact, as I understand it, if you believe the works I named - and I have no reason not to believe them - the revolution occurred not because people began to live worse, but because, paradoxical as it may sound, it was better began to live! But everyone wanted to live even better. The situation of the people even after the reform was extremely difficult, the situation was terrible: the working day was 11 hours, terrible working conditions, but in the village they began to eat better and dress better. There was a protest against the slow movement forward; I wanted to go faster.

Sergey Mironenko.
Photo: Alexander Bury / russkiymir.ru

They don’t seek good from good, in other words? Sounds threatening...

Why?

Because I can’t help but want to draw an analogy with our days: over the past 25 years, people have learned that they can live better...

They don’t seek good from goodness, yes. For example, the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries who killed Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, were also unhappy. Although he is a king-liberator, he is indecisive! If he doesn’t want to go further with reforms, he needs to be pushed. If he doesn’t go, we need to kill him, we need to kill those who oppress the people... You can’t isolate yourself from this. We need to understand why this all happened. I don’t advise you to draw analogies with today, because analogies are usually wrong.

Usually today they repeat something else: the words of Klyuchevsky that history is an overseer who punishes for ignorance of its lessons; that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat its mistakes...

Of course, you need to know history not only in order to avoid making previous mistakes. I think the main thing for which you need to know your history is in order to feel like a citizen of your country. Without knowing your own history, you cannot be a citizen, in the truest sense of the word.

Loneliness of the Sovereign. Was Emperor Nicholas II a bad ruler? Nicholas II Alexandrovich

Coronation and accession to the throne of Nicholas II

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

Bloody Sunday and the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907.

From the First Russian Revolution to the First World War

World War I

Abdication of Nicholas II

Execution of Nicholas II and the royal family

Nicholas II in cinema

Where did bears come from?

Frivolous son of a stern father

From Khodynka to the October 17 manifesto

Tsar, war and newspapers

Ipatiev House and everything after

Names, titles, nicknames

Childhood, education and upbringing

Accession to the throne and beginning of reign

First steps and coronation

Economic policy

Foreign policy and the Russo-Japanese War

Revolution of 1905-1907

The decade between two revolutions

Milestones of domestic and foreign policy

Nicholas II and the Duma

Land reform

Military command reform

World War I

Nicholas II assumed the Supreme Command of the Russian Army

Probing the world

Fall of the Monarchy

Growing revolutionary sentiments

Renunciation

Exile and execution

Religiosity and view of one's power. Church politics

Lifestyle, habits, hobbies

Family. Spouse's political influence

Personal assessments of his contemporaries who knew him

Different opinions about the willpower of Nicholas II and his accessibility to environmental influences

Awards

Russian

Foreign

After death

Assessment in Russian emigration

Official assessment in the USSR

Church veneration

Rehabilitation. Identification of remains

Monuments to Emperor Nicholas II

Filmography

Film incarnations

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