In April , Alexandra called on him to heal her only son, the Tsarevich Alexis. He was suffering from painful bleeding as a result of an injury. It was not publicly known but Alexis suffered from the blood disease haemophilia. After Alexis recovered, Tsarina Alexandra became convinced that Rasputin could control the young boy's illness. While there is still debate over the nature of his powers over the health of Alexis, it is clear that his influence over the Tsarina was considerable.
He advised her on appointments to the government, interfered in important decisions. He could do no wrong in the eyes of the Tsarina. Excuses were always made for his excessive and antisocial behaviour. To the Russian people, Rasputin symbolised everything that was wrong with imperial government.
The court and the royal family became objects of ridicule, to be despised. Rasputin's murder by royalists at the end of , came too late to undo the damage he had caused. In , when Nicholas II was 13 years old, his grandfather, Alexander II, was assassinated by a revolutionary bomber. When Nicholas II was 19 years old he joined the army. He spent three years in service before touring Europe and Asia for an additional 10 months.
Passionate about the military, Nicholas II rose to the rank of colonel. Although he was the crown prince of Russia, while in the military he attended few political meetings except for those held by the state council and the committee of ministers. Nicholas II inherited the Russian throne when his father died of kidney disease at the age of 49 on October 20, In fact, he confessed to a close friend, "I am not prepared to be a tsar. I never wanted to become one.
I know nothing of the business of ruling. Once he ascended the throne, Nicholas II had to marry and have children expediently, in order to secure a future heir to the throne.
Although a figure in the public eye, Empress Alexandra was something of a homebody, who preferred to spend the majority of her time at the palace at Tsarskoe Selo. The couple had their first child, a daughter named Olga, in The following year, Nicholas II was officially crowned as the tsar of Russia.
During a mobbed public celebration of the coronation near Moscow, thousands of people were stampeded to death. Unaware of the event, Nicholas II and Alexandra were all smiles as they went on to celebrate the coronation at a ball.
In the couple gave birth to a second daughter, Tatiana. General Denikin observed, to the contrary, that the decorated men were left with little to tell their comrades. Taken in the company he liked, the meals were washed down by copious vodka and wine, although his own drinking was sparing. That, he believed, was proof that he had been right to assume supreme command. Trouble was indeed hurtling toward the regime. His fondness for non-combatant military ways made him happy to be at Stavka, as did its refuge from decision-making.
Reasonable reform would have given able military leaders the ability to make and execute rational decisions. His adoring wife continued thinking for him. The German-born Alexandra was not a traitor as slanderous sheets had begun suggesting. Apart from her relationship with Rasputin, she was guilty of few of the unusual scandals described by the growing portion of the press that sought to blacken the monarchy.
When the czarina visited Mogilev the generals ate in guarded silence and feared to enter the neighboring room to which she retired after the meal. These men could never provide him with the advice and counsel he needed as Russia passed through the most critical moment in her history.
A fourth should be the next successor to command of another brigade. Although the czar was unwilling to sacrifice Alexeyev, he often followed her advice about other appointments. She protested in outrage that such impertinence was not merely wrong but also satanic because it challenged the natural order. The duties of commander in chief and chief of staff are distinctly different. By early , morale was improving because conscripts were being better trained and armed than ever before, thanks largely to the just-dismissed war minister General Polivanov.
But the opportunity for a full breakthrough was lost because of the vacuum at the top. Although of the war might well have been changed. By late summer, the Russian forces had suffered monstrous new losses of 1. A careful study 10 years later led Russian General Nicholas Golovine to estimate that just under eight million men—more than half those who had been mobilized—had been killed, wounded, or taken captive.
After a period of mourning for his late father, Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned czar and czarina in May As the ruler of Russia, Nicholas resisted calls for reform and sought to maintain czarist absolutism; although he lacked the strength of will necessary for such a task. The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of , which Nicholas only diffused after approving a representative assembly—the Duma—and promising constitutional reforms.
The czar soon retracted these concessions and repeatedly dissolved the Duma, contributing to the growing public support enjoyed by the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups.
In , Nicholas led his country into another costly war—World War I—and discontent grew as food became scarce, soldiers became war-weary, and devastating defeats at the hands of Germany demonstrated the ineffectiveness of Russia under Nicholas. In , the czar personally took over command of the army, leaving the Czarina Alexandra in control at home. In March , the army garrison at Petrograd joined striking workers in demanding socialist reforms, and Nicholas II was called on to abdicate.
On March 15, he renounced the throne in favor of his brother Michael, whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the czarist autocracy in Russia.
In April , Nicholas and his family were transferred to Yekaterinburg in the Urals, which sealed their doom. Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovs, and after a secret meeting by the Yekaterinburg Soviet, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family.
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