Nicholas II Alexandrovich(May 6 (18), 1868, Tsarskoe Selo - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg) - the last Emperor of All Russia, the Tsar of Poland and the 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: Admiral of the Fleet (May 28, 1908) and Field Marshal of the British Army (December 18, 1915).

Biography

Childhood, education and upbringing

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

The upbringing and education of Nicholas II took place under the personal guidance of his father on a traditional religious basis. The educators of the future emperor and his younger brother George received the following instruction: “Neither I nor Maria Fedorovna want to make greenhouse flowers out of them. They must pray well to God, study, play, play pranks in moderation. all the severity of the laws, do not encourage laziness in particular. If anything, then address me directly, and I know what needs to be done. I repeat that I do not need porcelain. I need normal Russian children. They will fight - please. But the first whip is for the informer This is my very first requirement."

The training sessions of the future emperor were conducted according to a carefully designed program for thirteen years. The first 8 years were devoted to the subjects of the gymnasium course. Particular attention was paid to the study of political history, Russian literature, French, German and English which Nikolai Alexandrovich mastered to perfection. The next five years were devoted to the study of military affairs, legal and economic sciences, necessary for a statesman. The teaching of these sciences was conducted by outstanding Russian academic scientists with a worldwide reputation: Beketov N.N., Obruchev N.N., Kui Ts.A., Dragomirov M.I., Bunge N.Kh. and etc.

In order for the future emperor to get acquainted in practice with military life and the order of military service, his father sent him to military training. For the first 2 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 cavalry hussars as a squadron commander, and, finally, in the ranks of the artillery. At the same time, his father introduces him to the affairs of the country, inviting him to participate in meetings of the State Council and the Cabinet of Ministers.

The education program of the future emperor included numerous trips to various provinces of Russia, which he made with his father. To complete his education, his father put at his disposal a cruiser for a trip to Far East. For 9 months, he and his retinue visited Greece, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and then returned by land through all of Siberia to the capital of Russia. By the age of 23, Nikolai Romanov is a highly educated young man with a broad outlook, an excellent knowledge of history and literature and a perfect command of the main European languages. He combined a brilliant education with deep religiosity and knowledge of spiritual literature, which was rare for statesmen of that time. His father managed to inspire him with selfless love for Russia, a sense of responsibility for her fate. Since childhood, the idea has become close to him that his main mission is to follow the Russian foundations, traditions and ideals.

The model ruler for Nicholas II was Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (father of Peter I), who carefully preserved the traditions of antiquity and autocracy as the basis of Russia's power and prosperity.

In one of his first public speeches, he proclaimed:

“Let everyone know that, devoting all my strength to the good of the people, I will protect the beginnings of autocracy as firmly and unswervingly as my late, unforgettable parent guarded it.”

It wasn't just words. "The beginnings of autocracy" Nicholas II defended firmly and unswervingly: he did not give up a single significant position during the years of his reign until his abdication in 1917, tragic for the fate of Russia. But these events are yet to come.

Accession to the throne and beginning of reign

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

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

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 Pamirs region, to the east of Lake Zor-Kul (Victoria)”, along the Pyanj River, was established; The Pamir volost became part of the Osh district of the Fergana region; The Wakhan ridge on Russian maps was designated the ridge of Emperor Nicholas II. The first major international act of the emperor was the Triple Intervention - simultaneous (April 11 (23), 1895), at the initiative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the presentation (together with Germany and France) of demands for Japan to revise the terms of the Shimonoseki peace treaty with China, renouncing claims to the Liaodong Peninsula .

First public speaking Emperor in St. Petersburg was his speech delivered on January 17, 1895 in the Nikolaev Hall of the Winter Palace before the deputations of the nobility, zemstvos and cities who arrived "to express loyal feelings to Their Majesties and bring congratulations on the Marriage"; the spoken text of the speech (the speech was written in advance, but the emperor delivered it only from time to time looking at the paper) read: “<…>I know that recently in some zemstvo assemblies the voices of people carried away by senseless dreams about the participation of representatives of the zemstvos in matters of internal administration have been heard. Let everyone know that I, devoting all My strength to the good of the people, will guard 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 speech of the Sovereign, excitement continues with chatter of all kinds. I don’t hear her, but they tell me that everywhere among the youth and the intelligentsia there are rumors with some kind of irritation against the young Sovereign. Maria Al came to see me yesterday. Meshcherskaya (ur. Panin), who came here for a short time from the village. She is indignant at all the speeches she hears about this in the living rooms. On the other hand, the words of the Sovereign made a beneficial impression on ordinary people and on the villages. Many deputies, coming here, expected God knows what, and, having heard, breathed freely. But how sad that ridiculous irritation is happening in the upper circles.<…>I am sure, unfortunately, that most of the members of the state. The Council is critical of the act of the Sovereign and, alas, some ministers too! God knows what was in the minds of people before that day, and what expectations grew ... True, they gave a reason for this ... Many straight Russian people were positively confused by the awards announced on January 1. It turned out that the new Sovereign from the first step distinguished those very whom the deceased considered dangerous<…>All this inspires fear for the future.<…>» In the early 1910s, the 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. to Nicholas, but also laid the foundation for the future freedom movement, rallying the zemstvo leaders and instilling in them a more resolute course of action.<…>The speech on January 17, 95 can be considered the first step of Nicholas on an inclined plane, along which he continues to roll until now, descending lower and lower in the opinion of both his subjects and the entire civilized world. "Historian S. S. Oldenburg wrote about the speech on January 17:" Russian educated society, for the most part, took 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 began to be found again.

The coronation of the emperor and his wife took place on May 14 (26), 1896. In the same year, the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition was held in Nizhny Novgorod, which he visited.

In 1896, Nicholas II also made a big trip to Europe, meeting with Franz Joseph, Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria (grandmother of Alexandra Feodorovna); the end of the trip was his arrival in the capital of allied France, Paris. By the time of his arrival in Britain in September 1896, there was a sharp aggravation of relations between London and Porte, formally associated with the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and the simultaneous rapprochement of St. Petersburg with Constantinople; Visiting Queen Victoria in Balmoral, Nicholas, agreeing to the joint development of a reform project in the Ottoman Empire, rejected the proposals made to him by the British government to remove Sultan Abdul-Hamid, keep 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 the French proposals on the Egyptian question (which included "guarantees of the neutralization of the Suez Canal" - the goal, which was previously outlined for Russian diplomacy by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lobanov-Rostovsky, who died on August 30, 1896). The Paris agreements of the tsar, who was accompanied on the trip by N. P. Shishkin, provoked sharp objections from Sergei Witte, Lamzdorf, Ambassador Nelidov and others; nevertheless, 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). From the plan approved at the meeting of ministers on December 5, 1896, chaired by the tsar, it was decided to abandon the plan for the landing of Russian troops on the Bosphorus (under a certain scenario). 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 Joseph between Russia and Austria, an agreement was concluded 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 infringement on its autonomy rights and caused mass discontent and protests.

The manifesto of June 28, 1899 (published on June 30) announced the death of the same June 28 "Heir to the Tsesarevich and Grand Duke George Alexandrovich" (the oath to the latter, as heir to the throne, was taken earlier along with the oath to Nicholas) and read further: "From now on, until It is not pleasing to the Lord to bless Us with the birth of a Son, the next 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 Beloved Brother, Our Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The absence in the Manifesto of the words “Heir Tsesarevich” in the title of Mikhail Alexandrovich aroused bewilderment in court circles, which prompted the emperor to issue on July 7 of the same year the Nominal Supreme Decree, which commanded to call the latter “Sovereign Heir and Grand Duke”.

The continuity of politics was due to the personality of the new king. Nikolai did not have that imperiousness and special flair that distinguished his father.

In the first years of his reign, Nicholas's tendency to submit to foreign influence led to the fact that modernizers began to play a leading role in the government. Witte and his supporters did not utter political slogans - they created a new, economically developed Russia.

In a matter of years, the economic geography of the country changed. Around Moscow and St. Petersburg, machine-building, metallurgical and chemical plants were concentrated, where thousands of workers worked. In the south of Ukraine, new mines were opened and blast furnaces were built.

Large industrial centers arose in Poland and the Baltic states, where the most technologically advanced industries developed. Foreign capital flowed into the country. Unfortunately, economic development outpaced social and political development. This led to a severe crisis - the first Russian revolution.

The reign of Nicholas II began with the already usual conflict in congratulatory addresses presented to the new emperor, requests were made to allow zemstvo representatives to participate in government and lawmaking, to allow them to express their opinion.

The answer was simple: leave "meaningless dreams." These words became the fatal mistake of Nicholas. There is no hope left for a rapprochement with the authorities. Nikolai and Pobedonostsev (they say that it was the chief prosecutor who wrote this speech) believed that they were protecting the people from harmful ideas; in fact, for more than ten years, the autocratic authorities did not want to notice his needs and aspirations.

As long as the economic recovery continued, the conflict between the government and society was not so noticeable. The government was more concerned about the problem of developing Siberia. A department was set up to facilitate the resettlement.

The treasury assumed most of the costs of moving and arranging the settlers. The right to change their place of residence was not granted to everyone, but still more than 100 thousand people went to Siberia every year. This was necessary not only for economic, but also for military-strategic reasons.

Russian possessions in the Far East increased significantly when the regions in the lower reaches of the Amur (in 1858) and along the Ussuri River (in 1860), as well as the island of Sakhalin, went to Russia. Russia entered into direct contact with Japan. Until the 1870s, Japan played almost no role in international politics, but after the restoration of imperial power in this country and the implementation of rapid and effective modernization, Russia realized that its neighbor was very aggressive.

In 1894 Japan attacked China. Both Russia and other European countries claimed the natural resources of China. Therefore, when Russia came to the defense of China, it was supported by France and Germany. Japan was forced to liberate the Liaodong Peninsula it had captured.

1893 - 1899 - Industrial rise in Russia. Economic reforms S. Witte

In January 1895, at the first meeting of representatives of the nobility, the top zemstvos, cities and Cossack troops with the new tsar, Nicholas II declared his readiness to protect the beginnings of autocracy as firmly and steadily as his father had guarded. During these years, representatives of the royal family often intervened in government, which by the beginning of the 20th century had up to 60 members. Most of the Grand Dukes held important administrative and military posts. The uncles of the tsar, the brothers of Alexander III - Grand Dukes Vladimir, Alexei, Sergei and cousins ​​​​Nikolai Nikolaevich, Alexander Mikhailovich, had a particularly great influence on politics.

The main executor of all the transformations in the first decade of the reign of Nicholas II (1894-1904) was S.Yu. Witte. A talented financier and statesman, S. Witte, heading the Ministry of Finance in 1892, promised Alexander III, without carrying out political reforms, to make Russia one of the leading industrialized countries in 20 years.

The industrialization policy developed by Witte required significant capital investments from the budget. One of the sources of capital was the introduction of the state monopoly on wine and vodka products in 1894, which became the main budget revenue item.

In 1897, a monetary reform was carried out. Measures to raise taxes, increase gold mining, and conclude foreign loans made it possible to put into circulation gold coins instead of paper notes, which helped to attract foreign capital to Russia and strengthen the country's monetary system, thanks to which the state's income doubled. The reform of commercial and industrial taxation, carried out in 1898, introduced a trade tax.

The real result of Witte's economic policy was the accelerated development of industrial and railway construction. In the period from 1895 to 1899, an average of 3,000 kilometers of tracks per year were built in the country.

By 1900, Russia came out on top in the world in oil production.

By the end of 1903, there were 23,000 factory enterprises operating in Russia, with approximately 2,200,000 workers. Politics S.Yu. Witte gave impetus to the development of Russian industry, commercial and industrial entrepreneurship, and the economy.

Under the project of P.A. Stolypin, an agrarian reform was launched: the peasants were allowed to freely dispose of their land, leave the community and run a farm economy. The attempt to abolish the rural community was of great importance for the development of capitalist relations in the countryside.

1904-1905 - Russo-Japanese War

In 1897, under a Russian-Chinese treaty, China leased Port Arthur and Taminvan to Russia for 25 years with the right to build a railway branch to connect these ports with the East Siberian Mainline. This treaty caused discontent in Japan and all European countries. Japan was actively preparing for war. Throughout 1903, Russia was negotiating, it was necessary not to give a reason and play for time.

On January 27 (February 9), 1904, Japanese troops attacked the Russian Pacific squadron, based in Port Arthur, but they could not capture the port and began to transfer their armies to the mainland. Britain and the United States, which considered Russia their main rival in the Far East, openly provided generous military economic assistance to Japan. Japan was technically excellently prepared for war. Russia, having numerous troops in this region, preferred passive tactics. After a long siege and battles for the port, on December 20, 1904, an act was signed on the surrender of Port Arthur. In 1905, two major battles took place: Mukden - on land and Tsushima - at sea. During the battles, 19 Russian ships were sunk, 5 thousand sailors died. As a result, Russia lost a fleet in the Far East.

In 1905, peace negotiations began in the United States. From the Russian side, they were masterfully led by S.Yu. Witte, who achieved good results in this difficult situation. According to this peace of 1905, Russia got off with minimal territorial losses - the southern part of Sakhalin Island. In addition, she lost Port Arthur to the Japanese. Witte succeeded in obtaining from the Japanese side the refusal to pay military indemnities.

1905-1907 - The first revolution in Russia

At the beginning of the 20th century, the influence of the radical opposition on the socio-political life of the country increased in Russia. The revolutionaries managed to raise a mass movement in individual cities and regions. In 1902-1903. peasant unrest took place in the Poltava and Kharkov provinces, strikes and demonstrations of workers took place in Zlatoust, Odessa, Kyiv, etc. The largest event of this period was the Morozov strike (1885) at the Morozov textile factory in the town of Nikolsky near Orekhovo-Zuev, Vladimir province. Political parties of various orientations began to emerge. The largest parties were the Socialist-Revolutionaries (Socialist-Revolutionaries), the Cadet (Constitutional-Democratic), the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDLP), the Octobrists (Union of October 17), the Union of the Russian People, as well as the Progressives, People's Socialists, Anarchists, People's Ukrainian party and others.
The situation was complicated by the growing economic and political crisis in Russia. Since the mid 90s. there is an increase in the strike movement in the country. The labor movement is beginning to play an ever greater role in the socio-political struggle.
The strikes covered mainly large industrial regions of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg and the industrial South. Representatives of the Russian bureaucracy understood that changes were inevitable, it was impossible to pursue the old policy, but the tsar did not dare to carry out reforms that could prevent the revolution. The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War aggravated the situation in the country.
In 1905, the strike movement acquired an all-Russian character. In the autumn of 1905, Moscow became the center of the revolutionary movement. The economic strike of printers, which began on September 19, turned into a nationwide mass political strike. In early October, the Moscow railway junction joined the strike movement. On October 12, the St. Petersburg railway junction froze. This was the decisive factor in the spread of the strike throughout the country and its transformation into an all-Russian political strike that covered 120 Russian cities.

Bloody Sunday January 9, 1905

Along with 1.5 million workers and railway workers, 200 thousand officials and employees took part in the strike public institutions, trade enterprises and urban transport, as well as about 500 thousand representatives of the democratic strata of the city: the intelligentsia, students, students of secondary and higher educational institutions. At the same time, about 220 peasant uprisings took place in the village. In June 1905, an uprising broke out on the battleship "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky", which was joined by the battleship "George the Victorious", the battleship "George the Victorious" and the warship "Veha".
In November 1905, a major performance of sailors and soldiers took place in Sevastopol. The rebellious ships were commanded by Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and its leaders were shot.
The outbreak of uprisings forced the tsar to agree to the signing of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, which promised the population "the unshakable foundations of civil freedom on the basis of real inviolability of the individual, freedom of conscience, speech, assembly and unions." December 1905 marks the peak of the revolution. A wave of uprisings swept across the country, and an armed uprising began in Moscow. Workers at the barricades resisted the onslaught of regular troops. On December 18, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to stop the armed uprising in an organized manner.

Workers uprising

The tsarist government began to carry out a number of political transformations. On December 11, 1905, the law on elections to the Duma was adopted. Elections were held by curia - agricultural, urban, peasant and workers. On February 20, 1906, a Manifesto was issued on the transformation of the State Council into the second upper chamber with legislative rights equal to those of the Duma.
The elections held and the activities of the elected deputies of the 1st and 2nd State Dumas did not bring political reassurance to Russian society. Since 1906, new revolutionary unrest of the peasants, the actions of workers, the activation of political parties of various directions and beliefs began.

The State Duma

After temporary concessions, the emperor again resorts to methods of power struggle. Simultaneously with the dispersal of the Duma, a new electoral law on elections to the Duma is being adopted, violating the provision formulated by the Manifesto on October 17 that no one new law has no effect without the approval of the Duma. This situation was called the June 3 coup of 1907. It put an end to the first Russian bourgeois-democratic revolution. The autocracy survived.
In 1907, new state structures were created in Russia. Executive (Council of Ministers, Imperial Chancellery) and legislative bodies (State Duma and State Council) were subordinate to the emperor. The Council of Ministers, in addition to the executive, was also given legislative and advisory functions. The Governing Senate (the highest body of court and supervision) and the Holy Synod (the highest governing body of the Orthodox Church) were also subordinate to the emperor.
In 1904-1905, the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Feofan introduced Rasputin to the highest circles of the metropolitan aristocracy, to the house of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, and in 1907 to the royal palace. Elder Gregory, widely known by that time for his divinations and healings, met Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the mother of Tsarevich Alexei, who was ill with hemophilia, and gained unlimited influence over her. In the last years of existence Russian Empire Rasputin enjoyed great influence over the imperial family. According to his recommendations, officials of the highest church and state apparatus, including ministers and heads of the cabinet, were appointed and removed. Rumors began to spread throughout the capital about the orgies organized by Rasputin, about his drunkenness and debauchery. Hostility towards Grigory Rasputin was experienced by all educated strata of society. This was the only issue where the monarchists-nobles and the intelligentsia, both revolutionary and liberal, agreed. On the night of December 16-17, 1916, the "old man" Grigory Rasputin, who for a number of years had a huge influence on the emperor and his inner circle, was killed.
The transformations carried out made it possible to relatively stabilize the political situation in the country, but not for long, the activities of the Bolshevik Party remained at the center of events.

1914–1917 - World War I

August 1, 1914 Germany declares war on Russia. The contradictions between groups of capitalist states, the struggle for spheres of influence, markets, led to a redivision of the world. Russia united with England and France, forming the Entente. They were opposed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (Triple Alliance).

The current situation led to the growth of patriotic sentiments, a decrease in labor strikes. Successfully passed the mobilization in the army. At a meeting of the State Duma on August 9, 1914, almost complete unity between the government and the Duma was revealed.

The main battles in the Russian theater of operations at the beginning of the war unfolded in the northwestern (against Germany) and southwestern (against Austria-Hungary) directions. The war for Russia began with the offensive of the Russian armies in East Prussia and Galicia. The East Prussian operation of August 4 - September 2, 1914 ended in a serious failure for the Russian army, but had a great impact on the course of operations on the Western Front: the German command was forced to transfer large forces to the east. This was one of the reasons for the failure of the German attack on Paris and the success of the Anglo-French troops in the Battle of the Marne River. The Battle of Galicia (August 10 - September 11) led to a significant military-strategic victory for Russia: the Russian army advanced 280-300 km, occupying Galicia and its ancient capital Lvov. During the ensuing battles in Poland (October - November 1914), the German army repulsed attempts to advance Russian troops within its territory, but it failed to defeat the Russian armies.

The results of 1914 showed that the Entente managed to thwart German plans waging war, to force it to fight on two fronts. The active actions of the Russian army forced the German command to radically revise their original plans. During 1915, now the center of gravity in the war has shifted to Eastern front and specifically against Russia. Germany inflicted a decisive defeat on the Russian army in the war, and a heavy withdrawal of armies to the East began. By the autumn of 1915, Poland, Lithuania, almost all of Galicia, part of Volhynia were lost. Losses in killed, wounded, captured amounted to more than 2 million people. Russian soldiers and officers had to fight in extremely difficult conditions. Russia's unpreparedness for war manifested itself particularly sharply in the poor supply of ammunition to the army.

In the summer of 1916, the troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of General A.A. Brusilov went on the offensive, as a result of which the Russian troops captured Bukovina and Southern Galicia. As a result of the Brusilov breakthrough, the Germans were forced to withdraw 11 divisions from the Western Front and send them to help the Austrian troops. At the same time, a number of victories were won on the Caucasian front, where the Russian army deepened into Turkish territory for 250-300 km. Germany was forced to suspend operations at Verdun in order to save the situation in the East. Romania from a neutral country turned into a warring country on the side of the Entente, thereby expanding the Eastern Front from the Baltic to the Balkans. The successes achieved could not fundamentally change the general situation. The war took on a protracted character. By the beginning of 1917, Russia had lost 2 million people killed, about 5 million wounded, and about 2 million captured.

World War I 1914–1917

In the period 1916 - early 1917. in the political circles of Russia there was a stubborn struggle between supporters of a separate peace with Germany and supporters of Russia's participation in the war on the side of the Entente. On the Western Front, hostilities continued until November 11, 1918. In the Compiègne Forest (France), an armistice was signed between the victors (the Entente countries) and defeated Germany. The final result of the First World War was summed up at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920.

1917 - February Revolution

First World War 1914–1917 required huge expenses. Taxes were sharply increased, this led to a crisis financial system in the state. Opposition moods have gripped the intelligentsia, the army, and the national outskirts; since January 1917, workers' uprisings have been growing in the capital.
The authority of the royal power was rapidly falling. In October 1916, new actions of workers began in Petrograd, about 200,000 workers took part in the strikes. In January 1917, the total number of strikers in the city already amounted to more than 350 thousand people. From mid-February, revolutionary actions did not stop: strikes were replaced by rallies and demonstrations. On February 25, the strike in Petrograd became general. On February 26-27, the autocracy no longer controlled the situation in the capital. The revolutionary actions of the workers received the support of the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison.

The uprising escalated into a change of political regimes. On February 27, 1917, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies was created by the insurgent people, and the Menshevik U.V. Chkheidze was elected the first chairman. On the same day, members of the State Duma at their private meeting formed the Provisional Committee. The Provisional Committee formed the Provisional Government headed by Prince G.E. Lvov. On March 1, the Council issued Order No. 1, according to which the troops of the Petrograd garrison were subordinate to the Council and could not be withdrawn from the capital without its consent. Attempts to suppress the uprising in the capital by forces of military units withdrawn from the front were unsuccessful.

The revolution

On March 2, 1917, in Pskov, Nicholas II signed an act of abdication in favor of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich. The latter did not accept the throne, leaving the issue of state structure Russia to the future Constituent Assembly, the convocation of which was to be ensured by the Provisional Government.

After the collapse of the monarchy, for all political classes, parties and their political leaders, for the first time in Russian history opened the possibility of coming to power. More than 50 political parties waged this struggle between February and October 1917. A particularly prominent role in politics after February 1917 was played by the Cadets, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and Bolsheviks. Each had its own goals and tactics for the further development of Russia.

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

Higher 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 Fidelity (Baden) (05/15/1883)
• 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 Saint 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 (Patriarchate of Jerusalem) (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 Osmanie (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 (02.11.1885), with diamond signs (27.02.1889)
• Family Order of the Chakri Dynasty (Siam) (03/08/1891)
• Order of the Crown of the State of Bukhara with diamond signs (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 Alexander (Emirate of Bukhara) (05/18/1898)
• Order of the Bath (Britain)
• Order of the Garter (Britain)
• Royal Victorian Order (Britain) (1904)
• Order of Charles I (Romania) (15.06.1906)

Memory

In Belgrade, after the end of the First World War and the liberation of Serbia from the Austro-German invaders, a Monument to Emperor Nicholas II was erected.

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

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

"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 theatre, opera and ballet, he loved physical exercise. He had unassuming tastes. He liked to drink a glass or two of vodka. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled that when they were young, he and Nicky once sat on a sofa and pushed with their feet, who would knock someone off the sofa. Or another example - a diary entry during a visit to relatives in Greece about how nicely they left oranges with cousin Georgie. He was already quite an adult young man, but something childish remained in him: leaving oranges, kicking his feet. Absolutely alive person! But still, it seems to me, he was so kind of ... not a daring, not “eh!”. You know, sometimes meat is fresh, and sometimes when it was first frozen, and then thawed, you know? In this sense - "frostbitten".

Sergei Mironenko
Photo: DP28

Restrained? Many noted that he very dryly described the terrible events in his diary: next to him was the shooting of the demonstration, and the lunch menu. Or that the emperor remained absolutely calm when receiving heavy news from the front 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 what happened to him at the end of the day, and in this way to give an account of how you lived this day. If the diaries of Nicholas II are used for the history of the weather, then this would be a wonderful source. “Morning, so many degrees of frost, got up at so much.” Always! Plus or minus: "sunny, windy" - he always wrote it down.

Similar diaries were kept by his grandfather Emperor Alexander II. War Department published small commemorative books: each sheet is divided into three days, and so Alexander II managed all day, from the moment he got up to the moment he went to bed, to paint his whole day on such a small sheet. Of course, this was only a record of the formal side of life. Basically, Alexander II wrote down who he received, with whom he dined, with whom he dined, where he was, at a review or somewhere else, etc. Rarely-rarely something emotional breaks through. In 1855, when his father, Emperor Nicholas I, was dying, he wrote: “Such an hour. Last terrible torment. This is a different type of diary! And Nikolai's emotional assessments are extremely rare. In general, he seemed to be 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 was established - this is wrong. There are diametrically opposed points of view. For example, academician Yuri Sergeevich Pivovarov claims that Nicholas II was a major, successful statesman. Well, you yourself know that there are many monarchists who bow before 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 person. But how political figure- was absolutely out of place, I would say.

Coronation of Nicholas II

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

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 all the burden of responsibility that fell on his shoulders. But, of course, he did not think that his father, the emperor Alexander III, will die at 49, he thought he still had some time left. Nicholas was weighed down by the ministers' reports. Although one can treat Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich differently, I think he was absolutely right when he wrote about the features characteristic of Nicholas II. For example, he said that Nikolai was right in the one who came to him last. Various issues are being discussed, and Nikolai takes the point of view of the one who came into his office last. Maybe it was not always like this, but this is a certain vector that Alexander Mikhailovich speaks about.

Another trait of his is fatalism. Nicholas 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 about this: “Niki (that was the name of Nicholas 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 Nicholas was sure that he was destined to suffer.

In one of your lectures, you said that he really had a lot of suffering. Do you think that this was somehow connected with his warehouse, mood?

You see, each person makes his own destiny. If you think from the very beginning that you are created to suffer, in the end, so it will be in life!

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

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

On the birth of Tsarevich Alexei

The summer of 1904 was marked by a joyful event, the birth of the unfortunate crown prince. Russia has been waiting for an heir for so long, and how many times has 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. Uncle and aunt no doubt knew that the child was born with hemophilia, a disease that bleeds 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 character of the empress began to change, from painful experiences and constant anxiety, her health, both physical and mental, was shaken.

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

You see, cook - don't cook, and 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, how he rode twenty miles and feels good, and she told 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 detail gives a clear idea of ​​their relationship.

Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

Initially, the family was against his marriage to the princess of Hesse. We can say that Nicholas II showed character here, some volitional qualities, insisting on his own?

They didn't really mind. 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, Austria-Hungary to an alliance with France, which was outlined in the early 90s of the XIX century. Alexander III also wanted to strengthen family ties with the French, but Nicholas categorically refused. A little-known fact - Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna, when Alexander was still only the heir to the throne, became the godparents of Alice of Hesse - the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: they were the godmother and father of the young! So there were still connections. Yes, and Nikolai wanted to marry at all costs.

- But he was still a follower?

Of course there was. You see, it is necessary to distinguish between stubbornness and will. Very often, weak-willed people are stubborn. I think that in a certain sense Nikolai was like that too. 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 perfectly understands that he cannot be, according to his temperament, the way his father was.

For Nikolai, his father has always been an example. He wanted, of course, to be like him, but he could not.

Dependence on Rasputin led Russia to destruction

- And how strong was the influence of Alexandra Feodorovna on the emperor?

Alexandra Fedorovna had a huge influence on him. And through Alexandra Fedorovna - Rasputin. And, by the way, relations with Rasputin became one of the rather strong catalysts for the revolutionary movement, general dissatisfaction with Nicholas. Even not so much the figure of Rasputin caused discontent, but the image of a dissolute old man created by the press, which 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 Feodorovna was also a German spy. In general, everything rolled along the well-known road, which led, in the end, to renunciation ...

Caricature of Rasputin

Pyotr Stolypin

- What other political mistakes have become fatal?

There were many. One of them is distrust of prominent statesmen. Nicholas could not save them, 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 everyone is now repeating: "You need great upheavals, but we need a great Russia."

That's not why! But because he understood: the main brake in a peasant country is the community. And he firmly pursued a line of destruction of the community, and this was contrary to the interests of a fairly wide range of people. After all, when Stolypin arrived in Kyiv in 1911 as prime minister, 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.

There is no subjunctive mood in history, as you know. But I really want to dream. But 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? Would Russia have entered the war with Germany so recklessly, was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand worth getting involved in this world war? ..

1908 Royal Village. Rasputin with the Empress, five children and a governess

However, I really want to apply subjunctive mood. The events taking place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century seem so spontaneous, irreversible - the absolute monarchy has outlived its usefulness, and sooner or later what happened would happen, the personality of the tsar did not play a decisive role. This is not true?

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. It 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, and the whole family - I emphasize, the whole family - was against it! Yes, Rasputin played a role - the family split largely because of him. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, tried to talk to her about Rasputin, it was useless to dissuade her! Nicholas's mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, tried to speak, but to no avail.

In the end, it came to the Grand Duke's conspiracy. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Nicholas II's favorite cousin, was involved in Rasputin's assassination. Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich wrote to Maria Feodorovna: "The hypnotist has been killed, now it's the turn of the hypnotized, 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 private relations with Rasputin, that the matter had taken on a political turn. And he miscalculated cruelly, although one can understand him as a person. Therefore, personality is certainly of great importance!

About Rasputin and his murder
From memories Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

Everything that happened to Russia due to the direct or indirect influence of Rasputin can, in my opinion, be regarded as a vindictive expression of the dark, terrible, all-consuming hatred that burned for centuries 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, in his own way, loved both the empress and the emperor. He felt sorry for them, as children feel sorry for those who have made a mistake through the fault of adults. They both liked his seeming sincerity and kindness. His speeches - they had never heard anything like it before - attracted them with their simple logic and novelty. The emperor himself strove for intimacy 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 placed in him.

Emperor Nicholas II and Supreme Commander led. Prince Nikolai Nikolaevich during a review 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 such a book by Kasvinov "23 steps down", about the murder royal family. So, one of the most serious political mistakes of Nicholas II was the decision to become the most supreme commander in 1915. It was, if you like, the first step towards renunciation!

- And only Alexandra Feodorovna supported this decision?

She convinced him! Alexandra Fedorovna was a very strong-willed, very smart and very cunning woman. What did she fight for? For the future of their son. She was afraid that Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich (commander-in-chief Russian army in 1914-1915 - ed.), who was very popular in the army, will deprive Nike of the throne and become emperor himself. Let us leave aside the question of whether this was actually the case.

But, believing in the desire of Nikolai Nikolaevich to take the Russian throne, the empress began to intrigue. “In this difficult time of trials, 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 the failures at the front would be associated with his name; nor the eight ministers who wrote him a petition; nor State Duma Chairman Rodzianko.

The emperor left the capital, lived for months at headquarters, and as a result could not return to the capital, where a revolution took place in his absence.

Emperor Nicholas II and commanders of the fronts at a meeting of the 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 passionate loving woman. A woman of power who fights for what she sees fit, fighting to ensure that the throne is passed to her son, despite his terminal illness. You can understand her, but she, in my opinion, lacked the breadth of her vision.

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

Nicholas II with his mother Maria Feodorovna

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 the renunciation

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

Definitely a wonderful family! They sit, read books to each other, their correspondence is wonderful, 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, more mischievous, some secretly smoke.

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

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

At a costume ball. 1903

But after the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (Governor-General of Moscow, uncle of Nicholas II, husband of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna - ed.) in 1905, the family locks up in Tsarskoe Selo, no more - not a single big ball, the last big ball takes place in 1903, a costume ball, where Nikolai is in the costume of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexander is in the costume of the queen. And then they become more and more closed.

Alexandra Fedorovna did not understand much, did not understand the situation in the country. For example, failures in the war... When you are told 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 traffic. It was impossible to simultaneously deliver food to large cities and carry military supplies to the front. Despite the railway boom that began under Witte in the 1880s, Russia had a poorly developed railway network compared to European countries.

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, in Moscow, what does Alexandra Fyodorovna write to her husband? "Our Friend advises (Friend - so Alexandra Fedorovna called Rasputin in correspondence. - Ed.): order to attach one or two wagons with food to each echelon that goes to the front. To write this means to be completely unaware of what is happening. This is a search simple solutions, solutions to the problem, the roots of which do not lie in this at all! What is one or two carriages for the multi-million 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 Archive. This archive contains letters from the 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 I haven’t seen or eaten a piece of meat in two weeks?” There is no meat! The bakeries are closed because there is no flour. And this is not the result of some malicious conspiracy, as they sometimes write about it, which is complete nonsense and nonsense. And evidence of the crisis that has gripped the country.

The leader of the Cadets, Milyukov, speaks in the State Duma - he seems to be a wonderful historian, wonderful person- but what does he say from the Duma rostrum? He throws accusations after accusations against the government, addressing them to Nicholas II, of course, and ends each passage with the words: “What is this? Stupidity or treason? The word "treason" has already been dropped.

It's always easy to blame your failures on someone else. It's not we who fight badly, it's treason! Rumors begin to circulate that from Tsarskoye Selo the empress has a direct gold cable laid 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 railroad crisis, failures at the front, the political crisis, Rasputin, the family split - all these are elements of a great crisis that eventually 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 assume that this was the end of the monarchy. Why? Because they had no experience of political struggle, they did not understand that they don’t change horses in the middle! Therefore, the commanders of the fronts, as one, 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

In the beginning, the war went well. Every day a crowd of Muscovites staged patriotic demonstrations in the square opposite our house. The people in the front rows held flags and portraits of the emperor and empress. With their heads uncovered, they sang the national anthem, shouted out words of approval and greetings, and calmly dispersed. People took it as entertainment. Enthusiasm took on more and more violent forms, but the authorities did not want to prevent 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 stones thrown at our windows. The police were called and lined up along the sidewalk to block access to our house. Excited cries and muffled murmurs of the crowd came from the street all night.

About the bomb in the temple and the changing moods

From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

On Easter Eve, when we were in Tsarskoye Selo, a conspiracy was uncovered. Two members of the terrorist organization, disguised as singers, tried to get 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 plot, 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 of Emperor Nicholas II.

There are still myths about the renunciation - 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 the papers, in all! And in the year and a half that Nikolai lived after that, he never said: “No, they forced me, this is not my real renunciation!”

The attitude towards the emperor and empress in society is also “steps down”: from delight 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 summons the Petrograd Chief of Police and orders the arrest of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Yusupov, participants in the murder of Rasputin. This caused an outburst of indignation in the family. Who is she?! What right does she have to order someone to be arrested? This proves 100% who rules with 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. Nikolay imposed a resolution on the document: “I am surprised by your appeal to me. No one is allowed to kill!" Decent answer? Of course yes! No one dictated this to him, he himself, from the depths of his soul, wrote it.

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 phrase of Nicholas II is known after the abdication: "I do not feel sorry for myself, but I feel sorry for the people." He really rooted for the people, for the country. How well did he know his people?

I will give you an example from another area. When Maria Fedorovna married Alexander Alexandrovich and when they - then the Tsarevich and Tsesarevna - traveled 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 does not want to leave the ship on which they traveled, to the people, he does not want to take bread and salt, he is absolutely not interested in all this.

But she arranged it so that he had to get off at one of the points of their route, where they landed. He did everything flawlessly: he received the foremen, bread and salt, charmed everyone. He came back and ... gave her a wild scandal: he stamped his feet, broke the lamp. She was horrified! Her sweet and beloved Sasha, who is throwing a kerosene lamp on the wooden floor, is about to burst into flames! 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 has been preserved of Nicholas II sailing away from Kostroma in 1913. People go into the water up to their chests, stretch their hands to him, this is the king-father ... and after 4 years these same people sing shameful ditties about both the king and the queen!

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

No, I think it was sincere. They were still deeply religious people, and, of course, Christianity and mercy are almost synonymous. The girls really were sisters of mercy, Alexandra Fedorovna really assisted in operations. Some of the daughters liked it, some didn't, but they were no exception among the imperial family, among the Romanovs. They gave their palaces for hospitals - there was a hospital in the Winter Palace, and not only the emperor's family, but also other grand duchesses. The men fought and the women did charity work. So mercy is just not ostentatious.

Princess Tatiana in the hospital

Alexandra Fedorovna - sister of mercy

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

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

Nicholas 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, made her rounds through the wards and talked for a long time with each patient. I walked behind and not so much listened to the words - she said the same thing to everyone - how much I watched the expression on their faces. Despite the sincere sympathy of the empress 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 with 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 a 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 the discussion of this topic? Ipatiev house

How was the decision to canonize them made? "Dug", as you say, weighed. After all, the commission did not immediately declare him a martyr, there were quite big disputes on this score. After all, it was not in vain that he was canonized as a martyr, 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 renounce Orthodoxy. Until their martyr's end, the royal family constantly invited priests who served 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 can there be?

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

From the report of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Yuvenaly,Chairman 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 Yekaterinburg Ipatiev House on the night of July 17, 1918, we see people who sincerely strived 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 light of Christ's faith conquering evil was revealed, just as it shone in the life and death of millions of Orthodox Christians who suffered persecution for Christ in the 20th 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 Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the face of the Passion-Bearers Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexy, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, 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 argue 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 rubbish has appeared in recent years about the royal family and the situation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. But what pleases me is that there are also very serious works, for example, studies by Boris Nikolaevich Mironov, Mikhail Abramovich Davydov, which deal with economic history. So Boris Nikolayevich 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 have passed since the liberation of the serfs, the growth of conscripts has increased by 6-7 centimeters!

- That is, they began to eat better?

Certainly! Live better! But what did Soviet historiography talk about? "The exacerbation, beyond the ordinary, of the needs and calamities of the oppressed classes," "relative impoverishment," "absolute impoverishment," and so on. In fact, as I understand it, if you believe the works that I named - and I have no reason not to believe them - the revolution did not come about because people began to live worse, but because, paradoxically it sounds, what is 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 countryside they began to eat better, dress better. There was a protest against the slow movement forward, we wanted to go faster.

Sergei Mironenko.
Photo: Alexander Bury / russkiymir.ru

They don't look for good from good, in other words? Sounds menacing...

Why?

Because one involuntarily wants to draw an analogy with our days: over the past 25 years, people have learned that it is possible to live better ...

They don't look for good from good, yes. For example, the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries who killed Alexander II, the liberator Tsar, were also dissatisfied. Although he is the king-liberator, he is indecisive! He does not want to go further in the reforms - he needs to be pushed. If he doesn't go, he must be killed, those who oppress the people must be killed... You can't fence yourself off from this. We need to understand why this all happened. I do not advise you to draw analogies with today, because analogies are usually erroneous.

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

Of course, one must know history not only in order not to make the same 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.

"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 coming to power of the Bolsheviks and their victory in civil war". One of key figures This topic is the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, who was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, and at the end of the twentieth century, canonized by the Orthodox Church. Lenta.ru asked publicist Ivan Davydov to investigate the life of Nicholas II in order to find out whether he could be considered a saint and how the tsar's private life was connected with the "catastrophe of 1917."

In Russia, history 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 partners in political discussions.

In the case of Nicholas II, this is quite clear: he is the last (at least for this moment) the Russian tsar, he began the terrible Russian twentieth century - and the empire ended with him. The events that determined 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 to be a nationwide unforgivable sin, for which many Russian troubles are retribution. 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 martyr. Moreover, a very popular saint - just remember the exhibition "Romanovs", held in December 2013. It turns out that to spite his killers, the last Russian tsar is now more alive than all the living.

Where did bears come from

It is important to understand that for us (including those who see a saint in the last tsar), 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 the collections of Russian folk legends, a plot akin to Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" is repeatedly repeated. The farmer goes for firewood and finds a magic tree in the forest. The tree asks not to destroy it, in return promising various benefits. Gradually, the old man's appetites (not without inciting from his grumpy wife) grow - and in the end he declares his desire to be king. The magic tree is horrified: is it a conceivable thing - the king has been appointed by God, how can one encroach on such a thing? And he turns a greedy couple into bears so that people are afraid of them.

So, for his subjects, and by no means only for illiterate peasants, the king was the anointed of God, the bearer of sacred power and a special mission. Neither revolutionary terrorists, nor revolutionary theorists, nor free-thinking liberals could seriously shake this faith. Between Nicholas II, the anointed of God, crowned in 1896, the sovereign of all Russia - and the citizen Romanov, whom the Chekists killed in Yekaterinburg with his family and loved ones in 1918, is not even a distance, but an insurmountable abyss. The question of where this abyss came from is one of the most difficult in our history (generally not particularly smooth). Wars, revolutions, economic growth and political terror, reforms, reaction - everything is linked in this issue. I will not deceive - I have no answer, but there is a suspicion that some small and insignificant part of the answer is hidden in the human biography of the last carrier autocratic power.

The frivolous son of a stern father

Many portraits have been preserved: the last tsar lived in the era of photography and loved to take pictures himself. But words are more interesting than muddy 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 - landau is rolling,
And in this land
A young military man is sitting
In a sleek beard.
Before him, like chumps,
Four daughters.
And on the backs of cobblestones, as on our coffins,
Retinue behind him in eagles and coats of arms.
And ringing bells
Blurred in ladies' squeak:
Hurrah! Tsar Sovereign Nicholas,
Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia.

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

But that's all later. In the meantime, in May 1868, the son of Nikolai was born in 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, Nikolai, fell ill during a trip abroad and died. So Alexander III became king in a certain sense by accident. And Nicholas II, it turns out, doubly by accident.

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

The time of bans, reactions, censorship and police arbitrariness - this is how the era of Alexander III was described by contemporary oppositionists (mainly 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 “Slav brothers” (the one on which the brave scout Fandorin performed his exploits), conquests in Central Asia, as well as a variety of economic indulgences for the peasants, strengthening the army and overcoming budget disasters.

For our story, it is important that the busy king did not have so many free minutes 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 told, the king was upset and worried that the heir could not acquire a mistress in any way. And then one day stern servants came to the son's chambers (Alexander III was a simple, rude, sharp man, he made friends mainly with the military) and brought a gift from his father - a carpet. And in the carpet - the famous ballerina. Naked. That's how we met.

Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna (Princess Dagmar of Denmark), had little interest in Russian affairs. The heir grew up under the supervision of tutors - first an Englishman, then local ones. 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, a samurai attacked the crown prince and hit the future king with a sword on the head. 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 Nikolai urinated on some kind of statue. These are all propaganda lies. However, there was one hit. The second one managed to repulse someone from the retinue, but the sediment remained. And also - a scar, regular headaches and dislike for the Land of the Rising Sun.

According to family tradition, the heir went through something like military practice in the guard. First - in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, then - in the Life Guards Hussars. Here, too, there is no anecdote. The hussars, in full accordance with the legend, were famous for rampant drunkenness. At one time, when the commander of the regiment was Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Jr. (grandson of Nicholas I, cousin of the father of Nicholas II), 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 - until the barman brings them a trough of vodka, after drinking from which the werewolves calmed down and went to sleep. So served as the heir, most likely fun.

He served cheerfully, lived cheerfully, 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 the future spouses somehow got it right at once, and in the future, in the course of their life together, they showed unostentatious tenderness to each other.

Oh yes. Nikolai left Matilda Kshesinskaya immediately after the engagement. But the royal family liked the ballerina, then she was the mistress of two more grand dukes. She even gave birth to one.

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

From Khodynka to the October 17 Manifesto

The last Russian tsar was definitely unlucky. The key events of his life - and Russian history - did not put him in the best light, and often - without his obvious fault.

According to tradition, a celebration was scheduled in Moscow in honor of the coronation of the new emperor: on May 18, 1896, up to half a million people gathered for festivities on the Khodynka field (pitted with pits, bounded on one side by a ravine; generally, moderately comfortable). The people were promised beer, honey, nuts, sweets, gift mugs with monograms and portraits of the new emperor and empress. As well as gingerbread and sausage.

The people began to gather the day before, and early in the morning someone shouted in the crowd that there would not be enough gifts for everyone. A wild crush ensued. The police were unable to contain the crowd. As a result, about two thousand people died, hundreds of crippled people ended up in hospitals.

But this is in the morning. In the afternoon, the police finally coped with the riots, the dead were taken away, the blood was sprinkled with sand, the emperor arrived on the field, the subjects shouted the prescribed “hurray”. But, of course, they immediately started talking that the omen for the beginning of the reign was so-so. “Whoever began to reign over Khodynka will end up 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. The tsar is hardly personally responsible for the poor organization of the celebrations. But for many contemporaries, the words "Nikolai" and "Khodynka" somehow tied together.

In memory of the dead, Moscow students tried to arrange a demonstration. They were dispersed, and the instigators were caught. Nikolai showed that he was still the son of his father and did not intend to be liberal.

However, his intentions were generally vague. He visited European, let's say, colleagues (the age of empires is not yet over) and tried to persuade the leaders of world powers 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 it would be, this war. Nobody understood, nobody was afraid.

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

Cottage in Livadia, hunting. The king liked 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 tsar fired on 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. I drove personally and had a fair fleet of vehicles. For pleasant activities, time flowed imperceptibly. The tsar rode a car in 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. In Japan, Nikolai, as we remember, did not like it. A military alliance with China against Japan is one of his first foreign policy deals. Then there were 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 right there - an attack on the Russian squadron.

Bird cherry quietly crept like a dream
And someone "Tsushima ..." said into the phone.
Hurry, Hurry! Term ends!
"Varangian" and "Korean" went east.

This is Anna Andreevna Akhmatova.

"Varangian" and "Korean", as everyone knows, died heroically in Chemulpo Bay, but at first the reason for Japanese success was seen solely in the deceit of the "yellow-faced devils." They were going to fight with the savages, hatred moods reigned in society. And then the tsar finally had an heir, Tsarevich Alexei.

Both the tsar, and the military, and many ordinary subjects, who were then experiencing patriotic enthusiasm, somehow did not notice that the Japanese savages were seriously preparing for war, having spent a lot of money, attracted the best foreign specialists and created an army and navy that were clearly more powerful than the Russians.

Failures followed one after another. The economy of an agrarian country could not withstand the pace necessary to secure the front. Communications were no good - Russia is too big for us and our roads are too bad. The Russian army near Mukden was defeated. A huge fleet crawled around half the Earth from the Baltic to Pacific Ocean, and then near the island of Tsushima was almost completely destroyed by the Japanese in a few hours. Port Arthur 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 thieving command, 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 up to popular representation. We met a demonstration with bullets, and the figures vary - from 100 to 200 people died. The workers got angry. Nikolai was upset.

Then there 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 the Russians basic civil liberties and parliament - the State Duma. The emperor dissolved the First Duma by his decree less than a year later. He didn't like the idea at all.

All these events did not add popularity to the sovereign. Among the intelligentsia, he seems to have no supporters at all. Konstantin Balmont, a rather nasty but very popular poet in those days, published a book of poems abroad with the pretentious title "Songs of the Struggle", which contained, among other things, the poem "Our Tsar."

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

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

Tsar, war and newspapers

The time between the two wars is filled with events tight and tight. The Stolypin terror and the Stolypin 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. premiere.) Economic growth. The first experiences of parliamentary work; Dumas that were always in conflict with the government and dismissed by the tsar. The undercover fuss of the revolutionary parties that destroyed the empire - the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks. Nationalist reaction, the Union of the Russian People, tacitly supported by the tsar, Jewish pogroms. The rise 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 in the end managed to completely subjugate the Russian Empress to his will: the Tsarevich was sick, Rasputin knew how to help him, and this worried the queen more than all the upheavals in the external the world.

To our proud capital
He enters - God, save! -
Enchant the queen
Invisible Russia.

This is Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich, the poem "Man" from the book "Bonfire".

It makes no sense, perhaps, to retell in detail the history of the First World War, which thundered in August 1914 (by the way, there is an interesting and unexpected document on the state of the country on the eve of the disaster: just in 1914, John Grosvenor, an American who wrote for The National, visited Russia Geographic Magazine's large and enthusiastic article "Young Russia. The Land of Unlimited Opportunities" with a bunch of photos; the country, according to the American, was blooming).

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

And also - the tsar, who decided to personally lead the army in August 1915, and also - endless lines for bread in the capital and large cities, and right there - the revelry of the nouveaux riches, "rising" on millions of military contracts, and also - many thousands returning from front. Cripples and just deserters. Those who have seen death up close, the mud of gray Galicia, those who have 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 rear of the enemy with the most terrible rumors, including about the most august persons. And in millions of leaflets throughout the country, stories were spreading that our tsar was a cowardly imbecile drunkard, and his wife was Rasputin's mistress and a German spy.

All this, of course, was a lie, but the important thing is this: in a world where the printed word was still believed and where ideas about the sacredness of autocratic power still flickered, they were dealt a very strong blow. 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 ended. In a world where there are no secrets in power, where a journalist in a newspaper can rinse the sovereign as he wants, empires will not survive.

In view of all this, it probably becomes clearer why, when the king abdicated, this did not particularly surprise anyone. Except maybe 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 the 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. A brutal murder - the king, the queen, children, doctors, servants. Martyrdom turned the last autocrat into a holy martyr. Icons of the king are now sold in any church shop, and with a portrait there is a certain difficulty.

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

It is as if he is hiding behind this story, there is little bright in him - not only in the events that passed by, touching him and his family, in the events that in the end destroyed both him and the country, creating another. It’s as if he doesn’t exist, you can’t see him behind a series of disasters.

And a terrible death removes the questions that are so fond of being asked in Russia: is the ruler to blame for the troubles of the country? Guilty. Certainly. But no more than many others. And he paid dearly, atoning for his guilt.

MAIN DATES OF THE LIFE AND REIGN OF EMPEROR NICHOLAS II

May 20 (Spirits Day) - baptism of the Grand Duke in the church of the Grand Palace of Tsarskoe Selo.

1877 - the appointment of General G. G. Danilovich as an educator of the Grand Duke.

2nd of March- Nikolai Alexandrovich was declared heir to the throne with the assignment of the title "Tsesarevich" and the appointment of Cossack troops as chieftain.

July- a visit by the Tsarevich, together with his father, Emperor Alexander III, to Moscow.

1883 May - participation of the crown prince in the coronation celebrations of his father, Emperor Alexander III.

1884 May 6- the ceremony of coming of age, the adoption by Nikolai Alexandrovich of the oath and entry into active service.

1888, June - August- command of a company of His Majesty's Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment.

17 October - the collapse of the royal train, in which there were Emperor Alexander III and members of his family, including Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, near the Borki station of the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway.

1889 January - first acquaintance at a court ball in St. Petersburg with his future wife, Princess Alice of Hesse. the 6th of May - Tsarevich was appointed adjutant wing, a member of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers.

October 23 - 1891, August 4 - participation of Nikolai Alexandrovich in a round-the-world trip.

1891, March 17- the highest rescript to the Tsarevich for the opening of the Ussuri section of the continuous Siberian railway.

April 29 (May 11) - assassination attempt on the crown prince, committed in the Japanese city of Otsu by policeman Sanzo Tsuda.

November 17 - Nikolai Alexandrovich was appointed chairman of the Special Committee to help those in need in areas affected by crop failure.

1892 April - August- his service in His Majesty's 1st Battery of the Guards Cavalry Artillery Brigade.

1893, January 2- Tsarevich was appointed commander of the 1st battalion of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

January 14- Tsarevich was appointed chairman of the Committee of the Siberian Railway (he was in office until December 15, 1905).

5th of March- the highest rescript to the Tsarevich for presiding over the Special Committee to help those in need in areas affected by crop failure.

June July - visiting the UK, meeting with the bride.

July - celebrations associated with the marriage of the sister of the Tsarevich - Xenia Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.

September - exacerbation of the illness of Emperor Alexander III, the transfer of the royal family to Livadia.

The 20th of October - death of Emperor Alexander III, accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas I.

October 21- swearing in the oath to the new emperor of the first ranks of the court; chrismation of the emperor's bride and naming her "blessed Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna".

7 november - the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

1895, January 17 - utterance by Nicholas II of a speech in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace in response to a loyal address prepared by the Tver Zemstvo. Statement of political continuity.

August 24–26 - the first meeting of Nicholas II as emperor of all Russia with the German emperor Wilhelm II. September 23–27 - official visit by Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna to France. (Since the World Exhibition of 1867, after the establishment of the Republic, no crowned guests have visited Paris.)

April 15–16 - official visit to St. Petersburg by the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph. Conclusion of an agreement to maintain the status quo in the Balkans.

August 29 - decree that initiated the reform of the gold currency circulation in Russia.

1898, August - speech by Nicholas II with an initiative addressed to the governments of states accredited to the Russian Court, with a proposal to convene a conference and discuss at it the possibilities of "putting a limit to the growth of armaments" and "protecting" world peace.

1899, February 3 - the signing by Nicholas II of the Manifesto on Finland and the publication of the “Basic Provisions on the Drafting, Consideration and Promulgation of Laws Issued for the Empire with the Inclusion of the Grand Duchy of Finland”.

May 18- the beginning of the work of the "peace" conference in The Hague, initiated by Nikolai P. At the conference, issues of arms limitation and ensuring lasting peace were discussed; representatives of 26 countries took part in its work.

June 28 - death of the heir to the throne, younger brother of Nicholas II, Tsarevich George Alexandrovich.

July August - the participation of Russian troops in the suppression of the "Boxer Rebellion" in China. Occupation of all Manchuria by Russia - from the border of the empire to the Liaodong Peninsula.

End of October - November - sickness of the emperor (typhoid fever).

July- the marriage of the sister of Tsar Olga Nikolaevna and Prince P. A. of Oldenburg (the marriage was annulled in September 1916).

September 20 - meeting and acquaintance of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna with the "magnetizer of Lyons" Philip Nizier-Vachot, who later became "Friend of the Tsars".

1903 February 26- Manifesto "On the plans for the improvement of the state order."

July 17–20 - the participation of Nicholas II and some other members of the Romanov dynasty in the celebrations on the occasion of the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov.

1904, January 27- attack by Japanese destroyers of the Russian squadron, which was stationed on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur; beginning of the Russo-Japanese War.

June 3 - the assassination of the Governor-General of the Grand Duchy of Finland N. I. Bobrikov.

July 30 - the birth of a son, heir to the throne, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich.

25-th of August- Appointment of Prince P. D. Svyatopolk-Mirsky as Minister of the Interior; an attempt to establish "trust" relations with society.

12 December - signing by Nicholas II of the decree "On the plans for the improvement of the state order."

1905, January 6- the highest exit to the Jordan (made on the Neva River opposite the Jordanian entrance of the Winter Palace), during which one of the batteries "saluted" the tsar with combat grapeshot.

January 19- Reception in Tsarskoye Selo by Nicholas II of a deputation of workers from the capital and suburban factories and factories. On January 9, the tsar allocated 50 thousand rubles from his own funds to help the families of those killed and wounded.

18th of Febuary- Rescript of Nicholas II addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs A. G. Bulygin on the development of measures to involve the population in the discussion of legislative proposals. Spring - the growth of agrarian unrest in a number of central provinces of the empire.

June 14–24 - armadillo uprising Black Sea Fleet"Prince Potemkin-Tauride".

July 10–11 - meeting of Emperors Nicholas II and Wilhelm II in the Finnish skerries (on the Björk roadstead). The signing of the Björk Treaty, according to which the parties were to provide each other with support in the event of an attack on them in Europe. It was disavowed shortly after the signing by Nicholas II as inconsistent with the interests of Russia's allied France.

July 18–26- Peterhof meetings, held under the chairmanship of Nicholas II and dedicated to the development of the draft State Duma.

August 6 - signing of the Manifesto on the establishment of the State Duma ("Bulyginskaya Duma").

August 23 - conclusion of the Treaty of Portsmouth, which put an end to the Russo-Japanese War. The price of peace was: the loss of the southern part of Sakhalin Island by Russia, the cession to Japan of the lease of the Liaodong Peninsula with the fortresses of Port Arthur and Dalniy, the recognition of Japanese interests in Korea and the payment of money to Japan for the Russian prisoners of war she held.

17 October - signing of the Manifesto "On the improvement of the state order". The beginning of a new era - the era of the "Duma monarchy".

Nov. 1- Acquaintance of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna with the Siberian wanderer Grigory Rasputin.

December 5, 7, 11 - A special meeting chaired by the king, dedicated to the discussion of the new electoral law.

December 9–19 - armed uprising in Moscow. 12 December- publication of the tsarist decree with changes in the regulations on elections to the State Duma.

December 23 - the reception by Nicholas II of the deputation of the Union of the Russian People and the acceptance for himself and for the heir of the badges of membership in the RNC.

1906 March 8 - December 15- the work of the Pre-Council Presence of the Orthodox Russian Church.

April 22 - instead of S. Yu. Witte, I. L. Goremykin was appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers.

April 23 - approval of a new edition of the "Basic State Laws" of the Russian Empire, which formalized the existence of autocratic power together with the State Duma.

April 27 - the beginning of the work of the First State Duma; speech of Nicholas II to the deputies in the St. George Throne Hall of the Winter Palace.

July 8 - the resignation of I. L. Goremykin and the appointment of P. A. Stolypin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

12th of August - assassination attempt on P. A. Stolypin (explosion of the ministerial dacha on the Aptekarsky Island of St. Petersburg).

November 9- signing a decree on the allocation of peasants from the community with the receipt of land in personal ownership; the beginning of the Stolypin agrarian reform.

25th of April- the refusal of Nicholas II to convene "in the near future" the Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church.

June 3- Manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma and the introduction of a new electoral law; final suppression of the First Russian Revolution.

August 18- Signing in St. Petersburg of a convention with Great Britain on the affairs of Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet. The actual inclusion of Russia in the Entente.

June 26–27- participation of the king in the celebrations dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the battle of Poltava; his meetings with the common people.

July August - trips of Nicholas II to France and England. Presence at sea parades; meeting with the English king Edward VII.

October- meeting with the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III in Racconigi (the residence of the Italian kings near Turin).

1911, September 1 - assassination attempt on the chairman of the Council of Ministers P. A. Stolypin in Kyiv.

1912 May- participation of Nicholas II in the opening of the monument to Emperor Alexander III in Moscow in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

June - meeting of Nicholas II with Wilhelm II in the Baltic port.

August 25–26 - participation of Nicholas II in the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino.

October - illness of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

October 30- the secret wedding of the tsar's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and N. S. Brasova.

May 9–11 - meetings with the German emperor Wilhelm II and the English king George V in Berlin.

May- trip of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in Russia.

September 29 - death from the wound received at the front of the prince of imperial blood Oleg Konstantinovich.

August 4 - September 2- The East Prussian operation of the Russian army, which ended in complete defeat for it.

September 15 - October 26- The Warsaw-Ivangorod operation, which ended in success for the Russian troops.

October 29 - November 12 - The Lodz operation, which did not allow the German troops to gain a strategic advantage on the Eastern Front.

October - the beginning of successful hostilities of Russian troops against Turkey.

May - August- the retreat of Russian troops from the previously captured Galicia, as well as from Poland and Lithuania, the loss of part of the territories of Latvia and Belarus.

June July - resignations of "unpopular ministers": military - General V. A. Sukhomlinov, internal affairs N. A. Maksakov, justice I. G. Shcheglovitov and chief prosecutor Holy Synod V. K. Sablera.

August 23- Acceptance by Nicholas II of the duties of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the appointment of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich as governor of the Caucasus.

August- Creation of the Progressive Bloc in the State Duma.

October- Acceptance by Nicholas II of the Order of St. George IV degree.

May 22 - July 31 - offensive of Russian troops on the Southwestern Front, Brusilov breakthrough.

Summer autumn- uprising in Central Asia.

November 26 and 30 - strengthening of the "opposition of His Majesty": for the first time in the history of Russia, the State Council and the Congress of the United Nobility joined the demand of the deputies of the State Duma to eliminate the influence of "dark irresponsible forces" and create a government ready to rely on the majority in both chambers.

December 27 - 1917, February 28- Prince N. D. Golitsyn - Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The time of "ministerial leapfrog".

November 5- the wedding of the tsar's sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and the staff captain N. A. Kulikovsky.

21 December- the presence of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna at the funeral of Grigory Rasputin in Tsarskoe Selo.

28th of February- adoption by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma of the final decision on the need to abdicate the king in favor of the heir to the throne under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich; the beginning of the arrests of tsarist ministers; departure of Nicholas II from Headquarters to Petrograd.

2nd of March - unsuccessful attempts by the tsar to find a compromise with the State Duma; receiving telegrams from front commanders; the signing of the Manifesto on abdication for himself and for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

March, 6- adoption by the Provisional Government (under pressure from the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies) of the decision to arrest Nicholas II.

March 9 - July 31- the stay of Nicholas II with his family under arrest in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo.

April 30 - transfer to a new location - to the Yekaterinburg House of Special Purpose ("House of Ipatiev").

On the night of 16 to 17 July- the murder of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, their children and servants in the Ekaterinburg Special Purpose House.

From Bach's book author Morozov Sergey Alexandrovich

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From the book of Peter II author Pavlenko Nikolay Ivanovich

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From the book "Golden" century of the Romanov dynasty. Between empire and family author Sukina Lyudmila Borisovna

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From the book Starostin Brothers author Duhon Boris Leonidovich

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From the book of Roerich author Dubaev Maxim Lvovich

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From the author's book

THE MAIN DATES IN THE LIFE OF EMPEROR NICHOLAS II AND THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF 1868, May 6 (18). Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich was born on May 20 (June 2). Baptism of Nikolai Alexandrovich. 1875, December 6th. He received the rank of ensign. 1880, May 6. He received the rank of second lieutenant. 1881, March 1. the highest

Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov), the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was born May 18 (May 6, old style), 1868 in Tsarskoye Selo (now the city of Pushkin, Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg).

Immediately after his birth, Nikolai was enrolled in the lists of several guards regiments and was appointed chief of the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment. The childhood of the future tsar passed within the walls of the Gatchina Palace. Regular homework with Nikolai began at the age of eight.

In December 1875 he received his first military rank - ensign, in 1880 he was promoted to second lieutenant, four years later he became a lieutenant. In 1884 Nikolay entered active military service, in July 1887 year began regular military service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment and was promoted to staff captain; in 1891, Nikolai received the rank of captain, and a year later - colonel.

To get acquainted with state affairs from May 1889 he began to attend meetings of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. AT October 1890 year went on a trip to the Far East. For nine months, Nikolai visited Greece, Egypt, India, China, and Japan.

AT April 1894 the engagement of the future emperor took place with Princess Alice of Darmstadt-Hesse, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. After converting to Orthodoxy, she took the name of Alexandra Feodorovna.

November 2 (October 21, old style), 1894 Alexander III died. A few hours before his death, the dying emperor ordered his son to sign the Manifesto on accession to the throne.

The coronation of Nicholas II took place 26 (14 old style) May 1896. On the thirtieth (18 according to the old style) May 1896, during the celebration on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II in Moscow, a stampede occurred on the Khodynka field, in which more than a thousand people died.

The reign of Nicholas II took place in an atmosphere of growing revolutionary movement and the complication of the foreign policy situation (the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905; Bloody Sunday; the Revolution of 1905-1907; the First World War; the February Revolution of 1917).

Influenced by a strong social movement in favor of political change, 30 (17 old style) October 1905 Nicholas II signed the famous manifesto "On the improvement of the state order": the people were granted freedom of speech, press, personality, conscience, meetings, unions; The State Duma was created as a legislative body.

The turning point in the fate of Nicholas II was 1914- Beginning of the First World War. August 1st (July 19 old style) 1914 Germany declared war on Russia. AT August 1915 Nicholas II took over the military command (previously Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich held this position). After that, the tsar spent most of his time at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Mogilev.

At the end of February 1917 unrest began in Petrograd, which grew into mass demonstrations against the government and the dynasty. The February revolution found Nicholas II at headquarters in Mogilev. Having received the news of the uprising in Petrograd, he decided not to make concessions and to restore order in the city by force, but when the scale of the unrest became clear, he abandoned this idea, fearing great bloodshed.

At midnight 15 (2 old style) March 1917 in the saloon car of the imperial train, standing on the tracks at the Pskov railway station, Nicholas II signed the act of abdication, transferring power to his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who did not accept the crown.

20 (7 old style) March 1917 The provisional government issued an order for the arrest of the king. On March 22 (9 old style) March 1917, Nicholas II and his family were arrested. For the first five months they were under guard in Tsarskoe Selo, August 1917 they were transported to Tobolsk, where the Romanovs spent eight months.

At the beginning 1918 the Bolsheviks forced Nikolai to remove the shoulder straps of a colonel (his last military rank), he took this as a serious insult. May this year royal family was transported to Yekaterinburg, where she was placed in the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev.

On the night of 17 (4 old) July 1918 and Nicholas II, the queen, their five children: daughters - Olga (1895), Tatiana (1897), Maria (1899) and Anastasia (1901), son - Tsarevich, heir to the throne Alexei (1904) and several close associates (11 people in total) , . The execution took place in a small room on the lower floor of the house, where the victims were brought under the pretext of evacuation. The tsar himself was shot from a pistol point-blank by the commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yankel Yurovsky. The bodies of the dead were taken out of the city, doused with kerosene, tried to burn, and then buried.

Early 1991 The city prosecutor's office filed the first application for the discovery near Yekaterinburg of bodies with signs of violent death. After many years of research on the remains found near Yekaterinburg, a special commission came to the conclusion that they really are the remains of nine Nicholas II and his family. In 1997 they were solemnly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In 2000 Nicholas II and members of his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

October 1, 2008 Presidium of the Supreme Court Russian Federation recognized the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and members of his family as victims of illegal political repressions and rehabilitated them.

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