, Research Paper
Discuss the reign of Nicholas II and analyze the reasons for his
failures.
The idea that anything Nicholas II could have done to change the
course of history would be wishful thinking. Russia before 1917 was
the largest country in the world. In economic terms it was backward as
it was late industrializing and late to emerge from feudalism. In
political terms it was also backward, with no legal political parties or
any centrally elected government.
Nicholas was brought up by his father Alexander III who didn?t believe
his son had the intelligence and therefore neglected to educate him in
the business of running the country. The fact that his father died at the
age of 49 and thought he had many more years to rule also contributed
to Alexander?s poor preparation to rule.
At 29 Nicholas assumed the throne, marrying the granddaughter of
Queen Victoria the German Princess Alix of Hess. She took the name
Alexandra and proceeded to dominate Nicholas in his decisions on state
matters. Their relationship though not the sole reason for the downfall
of the Romanov dynasty could be considered one of the causes. Both
lacked any ability for their positions in leading a country.
In the early years of the twentieth century the Russian economy fell into
a depression, this aroused extensive urban and rural unrest, partly due
to the unrest the government and Czar led Russia into a war with
Japan. The defeat of the Russian forces led to the onset of
revolutionary events led up to the events of January 9, 1905 which
became known as ?Bloody Sunday?. The large crowds bearing icons
and pictures of the tsar marched to the winter palace in St. Petersburg.
They went with the hopes of presenting the tsar with a petition
demanding a series of measures to improve the lot of workers. The
protesters believed that the tsar would hear their petition and correct
the wrongs. Instead on orders from Nicholas the troops opened fired
and hundreds died. From that night on Nicholas had sealed the fate of
the dynasty.
Nicholas under pressure tried to make concessions in an effort to shore
up support from the intelligentsia and professional sections of Russian
society. He tried to meet the peoples demands by introducing the
October Manifesto of 1905, which tried to establish civil liberties in the
form of freedom of speech, assembly, association and creating a
semi-popularly elected legislative body, the Duma.
Over the following years the reign of Nicholas II and Alexandria
became so estranged from the ruling circle that a palace coup was being
openly advocated. The intrigues swirling around the palace because of
the dominating monk, Rasputin who had a grip on the minds of the
royal couple until his assassination in 1916. Nicholas was deaf to the
cries from many fronts to take a more democratic course. On March 7,
1917 major demonstrations broke out in Petrograd. After two days of
heavy rioting, the soldiers called into to control the mob instead joined
the demonstrators. On March 15 Czar Nicholas II abdicated his
Empire to the emissaries of the Duma.
Maybe Nicholas was an incompetent and totally incapable of running a
vast country as Russia. But could anyone stepping into the morass
Russia had become solve the problem? It seems Nicholas was a man
doomed to his fate. The country was far down the road to revolution
when he became tsar. The lack of any historical basis for change from
the backward autocratic system as was the case in other European
countries and the lack of industrialization made Russia nothing more
than a feudal realm. In the midst of democratic and social change
occurring throughout Europe, Russia was bound to explode in
revolution.