Were you born on June 6, 1872? Did your mother die when you were 6? Did you get married to the Emperor of Russia? Did you sleep with a priest so your son can get healed from Hemophilia? Did your whole family get assassinated, after being in power for 300 years?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you and Tsarina Alexandra have something in common. Alexandra Fedorovna was born on June 6, 1872. As a young child her mother would pass away leaving her grandmother Queen Victoria to teach her most of what she would learn later on in life, she would meet a man known as Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov later on in her early life who later would be her husband and the father of her 5 children.
Alexandra’s and Nicholas’s first four children
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Nicholas left for the front, taking personal command of the armed forces against the counsel of his military advisors. Alexandra, as regent, oversaw operation of the government , and Alex would be left with Rasputin as her chief advisor on December 16, 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by conspirators from the royal court. With her husband away at the front and her chief advisor murdered,
By February 1917, poor management of the government led to food shortages and famine gripped the cities. Industrial workers went on strike and people began rioting in the streets of St. Petersburg. Nicholas feared all was lost and abdicated the throne. By the spring of 1917, Russia was engaged in a full civil war, with anti-tsar Bolshevik forces led by Vladimir Lenin.
Alexandra and her children were eventually reunited with her husband and all were placed under house arrest in the Bolshevik controlled city in place known as Ipatiev House in April 1918. The family endured fear, never knowing if they would remain there, be separated or killed. During the night of July 16-17, 1918, Alexandra and her family were escorted to the basement of Ipatiev House, where they were executed by Bolsheviks, bringing an end to more than three centuries of the Romanov
It all began in 1894 when a man named Alexander III (Tsar of Russia), died leaving his son Nicholas II to become the tsar of Russia at the age of 26. In 1894 Nicholas married Alexander the princess of Germany; they had 5 children, 4 girls and a boy. There only son Alexei was born with hemophilia.
The Grand Duchess Olga wrote in her journal: “…and he was wholly ignorant about governmental matters. Nicky had been trained as a soldier”. (Fiehn, T. 1996). Nicholas’ sister suggests that he was not ready due to his lack of training. Margot Tracey, daughter of a Russian industrialist declared in 1917, after Nicholas’ abdication “Everybody was fed up with the Tsar because they thought he was weak. When he abdicated there was great rejoicing everywhere. My parents opened champagne bottles and celebrated with friends.”.(White 1994 p.14) Margot shows her understanding of what was going on at the time and that Nicholas was very weak leader, although still a tyrant. Margot’s statement supports the hypothesis as it plainly says that the people did not like Nicholas as a leader due to how weak he was. Margot’s statement is further corroborated by Sergei Witte, a Russian Minister during Nicholas II rule “I pity the Tsar. I pity Russia. He is a poor and unhappy sovereign. What did he inherit and what will he leave? He is obviously a good and quite intelligent man, but he lacks will power, and it from that character that his state defects developed, that is, his defects as a ruler, especially an autocratic and absolute ruler.” (Russian Revolution Quotations 2015). These sources work together to support the fact that Nicholas II was responsible for his own downfall due to his weak character and that he was not properly prepared for the role. This caused
The fall of the Romanov Dynasty in 1914 proved that the Tsar could not handle the problems of Russia. Ironically, he would have been ideal as a constitutional monarch, but was adamant against the idea. As the First World War started Russia’s problems arises, from short-term and long-term causes. The war brought back inflation which led to “demonstrations over food shortages combined with workers’ grievances,” (Hosking, 2012, p. 91) thus this destroyed Nicholas’s image as Father of Russia. Military became ineffective as the transport system was not adequate, thus leading to food supplies decreasing in key cities such as Petrograd. Historians believe the impacts of the First World War led to Russian society becoming unstable and was ultimately the main reason of the downfall of the Tsar. However other factors, such as the Tsarina placing large amounts of trust into Rasputin who was notorious for his reputation as an alcoholic and a womanizer (Westwood, 2002, p. 215) and the role of the revolutionaries due to Lenin promising peace, land and bread, eventually leading to the growth of the Bolsheviks Party. Although, it can most rightfully be deemed that the impact of the war was the main reason for the fall of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917.
In 1905 and 1917 Russia was tormented by chaotic revolutions. The workers and the intelligentsia had arrived at the point of hating the autocracy because they could no longer endure the suffering, hunger and repression that the tsarist policies brought with them. Years later Lenin referred to the revolution of 1905 as a “dress rehearsal for the October Revolution” of 1917. In 1905 tsardom nearly fell. Nicholas II succeeded in remaining in power, stabilizing the situation, only thanks to various concessions. However, his continuing to rule harshly and unwisely brought him to be forced to abdicate in the February of 1917, signing the end of the Russian monarchy.
The Romanov dynasty began in 1613, however 1917 saw an abrupt end to the Romanov’s with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Demonstrations and strikes gripped the Russian people and with anti-governmental soldiers taking control, the Tsar had no alternative but to abdicate. Historians such as Michael Lynch1 and John Daborn2 state that in Russia’s great need of strength and power came a Tsar of weakness and limited outlook. However historians such as Ray Pearson believe that in aggressive opposition groups and with the help of the working class aimed to bring down the Tsardom at all costs.
In a burgeoning climate of autocracy, the Romanov dynasty was firmly established in the societal framework of early 20th-century Russia. Having been in varying degrees of absolute political control over an approximate time period of four hundred years, their eventual undoing marked a power shift polarising the imperial regime laid out by countless Tsars beforehand. Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, is recognised to have a degree of personal responsibility for the downfall of the Romanovs, yet the extent to which his decision-making skills can be held accountable is questioned by some historians. Despite this, multiple political, social, and military facets of Nicholas II’s reign were handled with instability, and his perceived lack of legitimacy due to this poor decision-making ultimately was a major causative factor to the downfall of his family’s vast dynasty.
In March of 1917, women in St. Petersburg went on strike due to the food shortage and small rations. Marches for bread and peace ensued, leading to the abdication of the Tsar from the Russian throne. The provisional government replaced the Tsar.
Rasputin’s influence over Alexandra allowed him to promote political allies to high-ranking state positions, leading to a massive reorganization of bureaucracy in 1915-1916 (Massie 389). Government officials soon believed that Rasputin’s presence was the source of too many of the troubles of the empire and posed a threat to the Romanov Dynasty. In December 1916, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov plotted Rasputin’s death. After inviting him to a dinner party, they brutally murdered Rasputin, shooting him several times, beating him, poisoning him with cyanide, and finally throwing him into the Neva River (Rasputin 235; King 182). The Romanov Dynasty would collapse in the following year 1917 in the February.
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