Nicholas II, the Emperor (1868-1918)

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Nicholas II (1868, Tsarskoe Selo - 1918), Emperor from 1894 to 1917. Son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Fedorovna. Married Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, who took the name of Alexandra Fedorovna. He was Crown Prince and Tsesarevitch since 1881. He served as a colonel in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment (1892). He lived in the Anichkov Palace, and after his marriage moved into the Winter Palace; during the summer he lived at the Nizhny Palace of Alexandria, where his children were born. In 1904, after the birth of his son Alexey, he moved to the Alexandrovsky Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. Nicholas I idealized the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich, and as a result Fedorovsky Settlement and the Court Cathedral of Our Lady Fedorovskaya at Tsarskoe Selo were built in the Neo-Russian style. After taking the crown, Nicholas followed his father's conservative course, appealing to the public to end their senseless dreams for increased local authority and establishment of any form of peoples' representation. The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, and the events of 9 September 1905 (see Bloody Sunday), led to the Revolution of 1905-07. Nicholas II signed a declaration ratifying civil and political liberties in Peterhof during the Total Political Strike, which spread through the country on 17 October 1905. From August, 1915, Nicholas II was Supreme Allied Commander of the Russian army, spending the majority of his time at the General's Headquarters, which led him to lose control of the situation in the capital. As a result of the February Revolution of 2(15) March 1917 he abdicated, was arrested, and kept under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo; from August, he was kept in Tobolsk; in April 1918, he was taken to Ekaterinburg, where he was shot by the Bolsheviks together with his entire family and his close associates. In 1998, he was reburied in the Catherine aisle of the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. He was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (1981) and the Russian Orthodox Church (2000). Busts of Nicholas II are installed in the town of Pushkin at the Court Cathedral of Our Lady Fedorovskaya (1993, sculptor V.V. Zayko), and in St. Petersburg at the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Ligovsky Avenue. (2002, sculptor S. Alipov).

Works: Diary. Moscow, 1992.

References: Гейченко С. С., Шеманский А. В. Последние Романовы в Петергофе: Путеводитель по Нижней даче. 3-е изд. М.; Л., 1931; Ананьич Б. В., Ганелин Р. Ш. Николай II // ВИ. 1993. №2. С. 58-76; Боханов А. Н. Сумерки монархии. М., 1993; Его же. Николай II // Романовы: Ист. портреты. М., 1997. Кн. 2. С. 583-681; Несин В. Н. Зимний дворец в царствование последнего императора Николая II (1894-1917). СПб., 1999; Буранов Ю. А., Хрусталев В. М. Романовы: Гибель династии. М., 2000.

Y. A. Kuzmin. Alexander III, Emperor
Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress
Alexey Nikolaevich, Tsesarevitch
Alexis I (Alexey Mikhailovich), Tsar
Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Nicholas II, Emperor
Ligovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Несин В. Н. Зимний дворец в царствование последнего императора Николая II (1894-1917). СПб., 1999
Буранов Ю.А., Хрусталев В.М. Романовы: Гибель династии. М., 2000
Дневники. М., 1992
Гейченко С. С., Шеманский А. В. Последние Романовы в Петергофе: Путеводитель по Нижней даче. 3-е изд. М.; Л., 1931
Ананьич Б. В., Ганелин Р. Ш. Николай II // Вопр. истории, 1993
Боханов А. Н. Николай II // Романовы: Ист. портр. М., 1997
Боханов А. Н. Сумерки монархии. М., 1993 Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment
Anichkov Palace
Winter Palace
Alexander Palace (Pushkin)
Feodorovsky Settlement (Pushkin Town)
Court Cathedral of Our Lady Feodorovskaya
Revolution of 1905-07
February Revolution of 1917
SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral
1894
1894
1905
1993
1998