Nicholas II

Emperor Nicholas II
Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias
Photo by A. A. Pasetti, of Tsar Nicholas II. St. Petersburg: 1898.
Reign	1 November, 1894 – 15 March, 1917
Predecessor	Alexander III of Russia
Successor	Empire abolished, became the Russian SFSR, then the Soviet Union in 1922; next Russian Head of State and Government is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Issue	Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Grand Duke Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
House	House of Romanov
Father	Alexander III of Russia
Mother	Dagmar of Denmark

Nicholas II of Russia (Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov) (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July [O.S. 4 July] 1918) (Template:Lang-ru, Nikolay II) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. He ruled from 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917. Nicholas proved unable to manage a country in political turmoil and command its army in World War I. His rule ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which he and his family were executed by Bolsheviks. Nicholas's full name was Nikolay Aleksandrovich Romanov (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Рома́нов). His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. He is sometimes referred to as Nicholas the Martyr due to his execution and as Bloody Nicholas because of the tragic events during his coronation and his government's subsequent suppression of dissent. As a result of his canonization, he has been regarded as Saint Nicholas The Passion Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Biography

Family background and early life

Nicholas was born in Saint Petersburg, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Maria Fyodorovna of Denmark. His paternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and his first consort Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse-Darmstadt. His maternal grandparents were Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. A sensitive child, Nicholas felt intimidated by the strength of his father, Alexander III, though Nicholas adored him and would often speak of him nostalgically in letters and diaries after Alexander's death. Nicholas and his mother, Maria Fyodorovna, were very close, as can be seen in their letters to one another, which have been published.

Nicholas II was the first cousin once removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish both of them, the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nicholasha. The Grand Duke also towered over the Tsar, so they were nicknamed "Nicholas the Tall" and "Nicholas the Short", respectively.

Known as "Nicky" to his close family and friends, Tsesarevitch Nicholas fell in love with Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, the fourth daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by the Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in 1884. He was sixteen; she was just twelve. His parents, however, did not approve of this match, hoping to cement Russia's new alliance with France. They had hoped that Nicholas would marry Princess Hélène, the daughter of Count Philippe of the House of Orléans.

As Tsarevich, Nicholas did a considerable amount of travelling. During a notable trip to the Empire of Japan, a failed assassination attempt by a sword-wielding man left him with a scar on his forehead. The quick action of his cousin, Prince George of Greece, who parried the second blow with his cane, saved his life. The motivation for this attack was that the assailant was offended by a foreigner visiting a very holy temple which had never before admitted a non-believer. The incident had an unfortunate historical effect in that Nicholas detested Japan ever after and supported war with that country all the more readily in 1905, resulting in the disastrous naval Battle of Tsushima.

File:Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II & Empress Alexandra Feodorovna -1896.JPG

Portrait by L. Tuxen of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Fyorodovna, which took place on 26 May [O.S. 14 May] 1896 at the Uspensky Sobor Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin amongst extraordinary opulence and splendor. Seated upon the dais, from left to right, the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, and Tsar Nicholas II

Portrait by Valentin Serov of the anointing of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna at their coronation. 1897

Accession

Deemed overly soft by his hard and demanding father, Nicholas received little grooming for his imperial role. Nicholas was a polite and charming child but lacking in any interest or curiosity in his tutors' lessons. Even when the Tsar did decide to initiate Nicholas into State business, Nicholas lost interest after only about twenty minutes in State Council sessions and left to see friends at cafes. When Alexander died at the age of 49 in 1894 of kidney disease after an unexpectedly rapid deterioration of health, Nicholas felt so unprepared for the duties of the crown that he tearfully asked his cousin, "What is going to happen to me and all of Russia?" He nevertheless decided to maintain the conservative policies favoured by his father. While Alexander had concentrated on the formulation of general policy, Nicholas devoted much more attention to the details of administration.

Despite a visit to the United Kingdom before his accession, where he observed the House of Commons in debate and seemed impressed by the machinery of democracy, Nicholas turned his back on any notion of giving away any power to elected representatives in Russia. Shortly after he came to the Throne, a deputation of peasants and workers from various towns' local assemblies (zemstvos) came to the Winter Palace to ask for some constitutional reforms. Although the addresses they had sent in beforehand were couched in mild and loyal terms, Nicholas was angry and ignored advice from an Imperial Family Council by saying to them: "...it has come to my knowledge that during the last months there have been heard in some assemblies of the zemstvos the voices of those who have indulged in a senseless dream that the zemstvos be called upon to participate in the government of the country. I want everyone to know that I will devote all my strength to maintain, for the good of the whole nation, the principle of absolute autocracy, as firmly and as strongly as did my late lamented father."

These words astonished and horrified all who listened and began the destruction of the new Tsar's popularity and hopes for peaceful change in Russia.

Relationship with the Duma

Silver Coin of Tsar Nicholas II, dated 1898, with the Romanov coat-of-arms on the reverse. The Russian inscription reads: B[ozheyu] M[ilostyu] Nikolay II Imperator i Samoderzhets Vseross[iyskiy]; English: By the grace of God, Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.

Under pressure from the attempted Russian Revolution of 1905, on August 5, 1905 Tsar Nicholas II issued a manifesto about the convocation of the State Duma, initially thought to be an advisory organ. In the subsequent October Manifesto, the tsar pledged to introduce basic civil liberties, provide for broad participation in the State Duma, and endow the Duma with legislative and oversight powers. However, determined to preserve "autocracy" even in the context of reform, he restricted the Duma's authority in many ways—not least of which was an absence of parliamentary control over the appointment or dismissal of cabinet ministers. Nicholas' relations with the Duma were not good. The First Duma, with a majority of Kadets, almost immediately came into conflict with him. Although Nicholas initially had a good relationship with his relatively liberal prime minister, Sergei Witte, Alexandra distrusted him (because he instigated an investigation of Rasputin), and as the political situation deteriorated, Nicholas dissolved the Duma. The Duma was populated with radicals, many of whom wished to push through legislation that would abolish private property ownership, among other things. Witte, unable to grasp the seemingly insurmountable problems of reforming Russia and the monarchy, wrote to Nicholas on 14 April, 1906 resigning his office (however, other accounts have said that Witte was forced to resign by the Emperor). Nicholas was not ungracious to Witte and an Imperial Rescript was published on 22 April creating Witte a Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, with diamonds. (The last two words were written in the Emperor's own hand, followed by "I remain unalterably well-disposed to you and sincerely grateful, Nicholas").

After the Second Duma resulted in similar problems, the new prime minister Pyotr Stolypin (whom Witte described as 'reactionary') unilaterally dissolved it, and changed the electoral laws to allow for future Dumas to have a more conservative content, and to be dominated by the liberal-conservative Octobrist Party of Alexander Guchkov. Stolypin, a skillful politician, had ambitious plans for reform. These included making loans available to the lower classes to enable them to buy land, with the intent of forming a farming class loyal to the crown. His plans were undercut by conservatives at court who had more influence with the Emperor. By the time of Stolypin's assassination by Dmitry Bogrov, a student (and police informant) in a theatre in Kiev on 18 September 1911, he and the Emperor were barely on speaking terms, and his fall was widely foreseen.

Tsarevich Alexei's illness

File:Nicholas II of Russia, photograph.jpg

Official photograph of Nicholas II taken in honor of the tercentenary celebrations of the rule of the Romanov Family in Russia. St Petersburg, 1913

Further complicating domestic matters was the matter of the succession. Alexandra bore him four daughters, Olga in 1895, Tatiana in 1897, Maria in 1899 and Anastasia in 1901, before their son Alexei was born on August 12, 1904. The young heir proved to be afflicted with haemophilia, a hereditary disease that prevents blood clotting properly, which at that time was untreatable and usually led to an untimely death. As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra carried the same gene mutation that afflicted some of the other major European royal houses such as Spain and Prussia. Hemophilia therefore became known as "the royal disease". Alexandra had passed it on to her son. As all of Nicholas and Alexandra's daughters perished with their parents and brother in Ekaterinburg in 1918, it is not known whether any of them inherited the gene as carriers.

Because of the fragility of the autocracy at this time, Nicholas and Alexandra chose not to divulge Alexei's condition to anyone outside the royal household. In fact, there were many in the Imperial household who were unaware of the exact nature of the Tsarevich's illness. They knew that he suffered from some serious malady; however, the exact nature of his suffering was not revealed to all.

At first Alexandra turned to Russian doctors and medics to treat Alexei; however, their treatments generally failed, and Alexandra increasingly turned to mystics and holy men. One of these, Grigori Rasputin, appeared to have some success.

As an Autocrat (and father of four daughters until the birth of the Tsarevich in 1904) until 1905, Nicholas had the complete power to alter the Pauline Laws of Succession for the Russian Empire in order that his daughters could succeed to the throne. He did not possess the willpower to do so. The Pauline Laws had been introduced by Tsar Paul I on the death of his mother, Empress Catherine II. Paul had introduced the laws more as a revenge on his mother than to regulate the succession. These laws prevented a woman becoming ruler of Russia unless all male line dynasts were no more. Given the fragility of health of the Tsarevich and the complete power of the Tsar, it is extraordinary that the law was not changed.

World War I

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serb nationalist association known as the Black Hand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, Nicholas vacillated as to Russia's course. The rising ideas of Pan-Slavism had led Russia to issue treaties of protection to Serbia. Nicholas wanted neither to abandon Serbia to the ultimatum of Austria-Hungary, nor to provoke a general war. In a series of letters exchanged with the German Kaiser (the so-called "Willy and Nicky correspondence") the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and each attempted to get the other to back down. Nicholas took stern measures in this regard, demanding that Russia's mobilization be only against the Austrian border, in the hopes of preventing war with the German Empire. It was a foolhardy decision as Austria was a long standing ally of the German Empire. War with Austria meant war with Germany. Nicholas had the complete ability to prevent war.

The Russians had no contingency plans for a partial mobilization, and on July 31, 1914, Nicholas took the fateful step of confirming the order for a general mobilization. Nicholas was strongly counselled against mobilisation of the Russian forces but chose to ignore such advice. As Germany and Austria-Hungary had mutual defence treaties in place, this led almost immediately to a German mobilization and declaration of war, and the outbreak of World War I. War was a great danger to the stability of the Romanov dynasty.

The outbreak of war on August 1, 1914, found Russia grossly unprepared, yet an immediate attack was ordered against the German province of East Prussia. The Germans mobilized there with great efficiency and completely defeated the two Russian armies which had invaded. The Battle of Tannenberg where an entire Russian army was annihilated cast an ominous shadow over the empire's future. The loyal officers lost were the very ones needed to protect the dynasty.

The Russian armies later had considerable success against both the Austro-Hungarian armies and against the forces of the Ottoman Empire. They never succeeded against the might of the German army.

Gradually a war of attrition set in on the vast Eastern Front, where the Russians were facing the combined forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and they suffered staggering losses. Nicholas, feeling that it was his duty, and that his personal presence would inspire his troops, decided to lead his army directly yet again against advice given. He assumed the role of commander-in-chief after dismissing his cousin from that position, the highly respected and experienced Nikolai Nikolaevich (September 1915) following the loss of the Russian Kingdom of Poland. This was a fatal mistake as he was now directly associated as commander-in-chief with all subsequent losses. He was also away from the direct governance of the empire and when revolution broke out in St.Petersburg was unable to prevent it being not in the capital to control events.

His efforts to oversee the war left domestic issues essentially in the hands of Alexandra. As a German she was extremely unpopular. The Duma was constantly calling for political reforms. Political unrest continued throughout the war. Cut off from public opinion, Nicholas refused to see how tired the people were of his dynasty and how much the common people hated his wife. He had been repeatedly warned about the destructive influence of Grigori Rasputin but had failed to remove him. Nicholas had refused to censor the press and wild rumours and accusations about Alexandra and Rasputin appeared almost daily. Alexandra was even brought under allegations of treason due to her German roots. Anger at Nicholas's failure to act and the extreme damage that Rasputin's influence was doing to Russia's war effort and to the monarchy led to his murder by a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, a cousin of the Tsar, on December 16 1916.

End of reign

There was mounting hardship as the government failed to produce supplies, creating massive riots and rebellions. With Nicholas away at the front in 1915, authority appeared to collapse (Empress Alexandra ran the government from Saint Petersburg from 1915 - initially with Rasputin, who was later assassinated), and St. Petersburg was left in the hands of strikers and mutineering conscript soldiers. Despite efforts by the British Ambassador Sir George Buchanan to warn the Tsar that he should grant constitutional reforms to fend-off revolution, Nicholas continued to bury himself away at the Staff HQ (Stavka) 400 miles away at Moghilev, leaving his capital and court open to intrigues and insurrection.

The last known photograph of Nicholas II, taken after his abdication in March 1917

In February 1917 in Petrograd (as the capital had been renamed) a combination of very severe cold weather allied with acute food shortages caused people to start to break shop windows to get bread and other necessaries. Police started to shoot at the populace from rooftops which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly-motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime. They were angry and full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace. Order broke down and members of the Parliament (Duma) formed a "Provisional Government" to try to restore order but it was impossible to turn the tide of revolutionary change. At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917 (February in the Old Russian Calendar), on 2 March (Julian Calendar)/ 15 March (Gregorian Calendar), 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. He firstly abdicated in favour of Tsarevich Alexis, but swiftly changed his mind after advice from doctors that the heir would not live long apart from his parents who would be forced into exile. Nicholas drew up a new manifesto naming his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Emperor of all the Russias. He issued the following statement (which was suppressed by the Provisional Government):

In the days of the great struggle against the foreign enemies, who for nearly three years have tried to enslave our fatherland, the Lord God has been pleased to send down on Russia a new heavy trial. Internal popular disturbances threaten to have a disastrous effect on the future conduct of this persistent war. The destiny of Russia, the honor of our heroic army, the welfare of the people and the whole future of our dear fatherland demand that the war should be brought to a victorious conclusion whatever the cost. The cruel enemy is making his last efforts, and already the hour approaches when our glorious army together with our gallant allies will crush him. In these decisive days in the life of Russia, We thought it Our duty of conscience to facilitate for Our people the closest union possible and a consolidation of all national forces for the speedy attainment of victory. In agreement with the Imperial Duma We have thought it well to renounce the Throne of the Russian Empire and to lay down the supreme power. As We do not wish to part from Our beloved son, We transmit the succession to Our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, and give Him Our blessing to mount the Throne of the Russian Empire. We direct Our brother to conduct the affairs of state in full and inviolable union with the representatives of the people in the legislative bodies on those principles which will be established by them, and on which He will take an inviolable oath. In the name of Our dearly beloved homeland, We call on Our faithful sons of the fatherland to fulfill their sacred duty to the fatherland, to obey the tsar in the heavy moment of national trials, and to help Him, together with the representatives of the people, to guide the Russian Empire on the road to victory, welfare, and glory. May the Lord God help Russia!

Grand Duke Mikhail declined to accept the throne until the people were allowed to vote through a Constituent Assembly for the continuance of the monarchy or a republic. Contrary to popular belief, Mikhail never abdicated, he deferred taking up power.The abdication of Nicholas II and the subsequent bolshevik revolution brought three centuries of the Romanov dynasty's rule to an end. It also paved the way for massive destruction of Russian culture with the closure and demolition of many churches and monasteries, the theft of valuables and estates from the former aristocracy and monied classes and the suppression of religious and folk art forms.

Exile and murder

File:Russian Royal Family, 1911.JPG

Photograph by the Levitsky Company of the last Russian Royal Family. Clockwise from top: the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Tsarevich Alexei, the Grand Duchess Tatiana, Tsar Nicholas II, the Grand Duchess Olga, and the Grand Duchess Maria. Livadia, 1913

In early March the Provisional Government placed Nicholas and his family under house arrest in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, 15 miles south of Petrograd. In August 1917 the Kerensky government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk in the Urals, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the former Governor's Mansion, known as the Ipatiev House, in some comfort.

After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment grew stricter and talk of putting Nicholas on trial grew more frequent. As the counterrevolutionary White movement gathered force, leading to full-scale civil war by the summer, Nicholas, Alexandra and their daughter Maria were moved during April to Yekaterinburg. Alexis was too ill to accompany his parents and remained with his sisters Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia not leaving Tobolsk until May 1918. The family were imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, a militant Bolshevik stronghold. Nicholas, Alexandra, their children, their physician, and three servants were woken and taken into a basement room and executed at 2:33 A.M. on July 17. Whether this was on direct orders from Vladimir Lenin in Moscow (as many believe, though scholarly research has found no hard evidence), or an option approved in Moscow should White troops approach Yekaterinburg, or at the initiative of local Bolsheviks, remains in dispute, as does whether the order (if there was an order) was for the execution of Nicholas alone or the entire family.

Then in 1989, Yakov Yurovsky's own report was published, which seemed to show conclusively what had happened that night. The execution took place as units of the Czechoslovak Legion, making their retreat out of Russia, approached Yekaterinburg. Fearing that the Legion would take the town and free him, the Emperor's Bolshevik jailers pursued the immediate liquidation of the Imperial Family, arguing that there was "no turning back". The telegram giving the order on behalf of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow was signed by Yakov Sverdlov, after whom the town was subsequently renamed, Svderdlovsk. Nicholas was the first to die. He was executed with multiple bullets to the head and chest. The last ones to die were Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria, who were wearing several pounds of diamonds within their clothing, thus rendering them bullet-resistant to an extent. They were speared with bayonets.

Yekaterinburg's "Church on the Blood", built on the spot where the Ipatiev House once stood. The lare sculpture in front of the church depicts the royal family.

The bodies of Nicholas and his family, after being soaked in acid and burned, were long believed to have been disposed of down a mineshaft at a site called the Four Brothers. Initially, this was true — they had indeed been disposed of there on the night of July 17. The following morning — when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site — Yurovsky removed the bodies and concealed them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the bodies in a sealed and concealed pit on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (now abandoned) 12 miles north of Yekaterinburg. The remains of all the family and their retainers with the exception of two of the children were later found in 1991 and reburied by the Russian government following a state funeral. The process to identify the remains was exhaustive. Samples were sent to Britain and the United States for DNA testing. The tests concluded that five of the skeletons were members of one family and four were unrelated. Three of the five were determined to be the children of two parents. The mother was linked to the British royal family, as was Alexandra. (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, grandson of Alexandra's oldest sister Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven, gave a DNA sample which matched with that of the remains) The father was determined to be related to Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, younger brother of Nicholas II. British scientists said they were more than 98.5% sure that the remains were those of the Emperor, his family and their attendants. Relics from the Ōtsu Scandal (a failed assassination attempt on Tsarevich Nicholas (future Nicholas II) in Japan) failed to provide sufficient evidence due to contamination.

A ceremony of Christian burial was held in 80 years to the day of the their murder in 1998. The bodies were laid to rest with state honors in the St. Catherine Chapel in the St. Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, where all other Russian emperors since Peter the Great lie. President and Mrs. Yeltsin attended the funeral along with Romanov relations including Prince Michael of Kent. The last Imperial Family of Russia have been made saints not only by the Russian Orthodox Church in exile but also by Patriarch Alexis II in Moscow.

Missing Tsarevich and Grand Duchess

Two skeletons were not found — Alexei, his teenage son and heir to the throne; and one of his daughters, either Maria, Tatiana, or Anastasia (the 3 principle investigators of the remains — Alexander Avdonin, Sergei Abramov, and William Maples — are not in agreement concerning the identity of this daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra). In an article in The Sunday Telegraph, 19 April 1998, Avdonin, who found the bones of the rest of the family, stated that the missing bodies were at another site near the main grave. He claimed that the Bolsheviks experimented with the two bodies (Alexis and his sister) to completely destroy the corpses after burning by crushing the bones to powder. The Bolshevik executioners did not have enough time to treat the rest of the bodies in the same way, hence the survival of their remains. Avdonin believes that, as the remains of the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchess are so fragmentary, "probably only a few bones - possibly only some dust and ash" - they should be left in peace. Anna Anderson received worldwide notoriety before the bodies were even found when rumours spread that she was claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the alleged sole survivor of the execution. Hollywood has made films based on this. Anna Anderson helped to fuel these rumours and gained a high degree of notoriety through her claims to be Anastasia. Her supporters alleged she knew information about the Romanovs that only an intimate member of the family would know. However, DNA testing on Anna Anderson's remains proved she was an imposter. She was in fact a missing Polish factory worker, Franziska Schanzkowska.

The Russian Orthodox Church, in spite of multiple DNA evidence, had refused to acknowledge the remains of the Imperial Family as genuine. It is thought its reasons for non-recognition are political.

During the interment of the bones in 1998, the remains were referred to by the Church as 'Christian victims of the Revolution' rather than as the royal family. One reason for this dispute was the absence of any mark from Nicholas's saber wound he received on a visit to Japan as the tsarevich. Tests done by Japanese scientists showed that the blood of Nicholas's nephew Tikhon did not match with the published profile of Nicholas obtained by Dr Gill. A Stanford study done in 2003 suggested contamination.

In a 1995 book Dead Men Do Tell Tales, forensic anthropologist William Maples confirmed that he had examined the skeletons of the imperial family. The authors of a 2004 Science article have alleged that the DNA results to date have not been conclusive. Their views are not taken seriously.

Ancestry

Main article: Ancestry of Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II's ancestors in three generations

Nicholas II of Russia	Father: Alexander III of Russia	Paternal Grandfather: Alexander II of Russia	Paternal Great-grandfather: Nicholas I of Russia
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Charlotte of Prussia
		Paternal Grandmother: Marie of Hesse	Paternal Great-grandfather: Legally, Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse. Biological parentage is uncertain.
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Wilhelmine of Baden
	Mother: Dagmar of Denmark	Maternal Grandfather: Christian IX of Denmark	Maternal Great-grandfather: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel
		Maternal Grandmother: Louise of Hesse-Kassel	Maternal Great-grandfather: Prince William of Hesse
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark

Issue

The children of Nicholas II and empress Alexandra as follows:

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna	November 15 [O.S. November 3] 1895	July 17 1918	murdered at Yekaterinberg by the Bolsheviks
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna	June 10 [O.S. May 29] 1897	July 17 1918	murdered at Yekaterinberg by the Bolsheviks
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna	June 26 [O.S. June 14] 1899	July 17 1918	murdered at Yekaterinberg by the Bolsheviks
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna	June 18 [O.S. June 5] 1901	July 17 1918	murdered at Yekaterinberg by the Bolsheviks
Grand Duke Tsarevich Alexei	August 12 [O.S. July 30] 1904	July 17 1918	murdered at Yekaterinberg by the Bolsheviks

Sainthood

Main article: Romanov sainthood

File:Romanovsaints.png

The saints of the Romanov family

In 1981 Nicholas and his immediate family were canonized as saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia as martyrs. On 14 August 2000 they were canonized by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. They were not named martyrs, since their death did not result immediately from their Christian faith; instead they were canonized as passion bearers. According to a statement by the Moscow synod, they were glorified as saints for the following reasons:

In the last Orthodox Russian monarch and members of his family we see people who sincerely strove to incarnate in their lives the commands of the Gospel. In the suffering borne by the Royal Family in prison with humility, patience, and meekness, and in their martyrs deaths in Ekaterinburg in the night of 4/17 July 1918 was revealed the light of the faith of Christ that conquers evil.

Further reading

• The Sokolov Report, in Victor Alexandrov, "The End of The Romanovs", London: 1966.
• Paul Grabbe, "The Private World of the Last Tsar" New York: 1985.
• Ferro, Marc. Nicholas II: Last of the Tsars. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 1993 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-508192-7); 1995 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-509382-8).
• Genrikh Ioffe. Revoliutsiia i sud'ba Romanovykh. Moscow: Respublika, 1992 Template:Ru icon.
• Greg King, The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II. 2006.
• Greg King and Penny Wilson, "The Fate of the Romanovs". 2003.
• Dominic Lieven, Nicholas II: Emperor of All the Russias. 1993.
• Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas & Alexandra. 1999.
• Shay McNeal, "The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar". 2001.
• Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra. 1967.
• Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs. The Final Chapter. 1995, ISBN-10 0394580486
• Bernard Pares, "The Fall of the Russian Monarchy" London: 1939, reprint London: 1988.
• John Perry and Konstantin Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs. 1999.
• Edvard Radzinsky, The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II (1992) ISBN 0-385-42371-3
• Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalev, The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in aTime of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
• Anthony Summers and Tom Mangold, The File on the Tsar. 1976.
• Andrew M. Verner, The Crisis of the Russian Autocracy: Nicholas II and the 1905 Revolution. 1990.
• Richard Wortman, Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, vol. 2. 2000.
• Pierre Gilliard, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court
• Prince Felix Yusupov, Lost Splendour.
• Elisabeth Heresch, "Nikolaus II. Feigheit, Lüge und Verrat". F.A.Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, München, 1992.
• The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra, April 1914 – March 1917. Edited by Joseph T. Furhmann Fuhrmann. Westport, Conn. and London: 1999.
• Letters of Tsar Nicholas and Empress Marie. Ed. Edward J. Bing. London: 1937.
• Letters of the Tsar to the Tsaritsa, 1914–1917. Trans. from Russian translations from the original English. E. L. Hynes. London and New York: 1929.
• Nicky-Sunny Letters: correspondence of the Tsar and Tsaritsa, 1914–1917. Hattiesburg, Miss: 1970.
• The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar: Being the Confidential Correspondence between Nicholas II and his Mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Ed. Edward J. Bing. New York and Toronto: 1938.
• Willy-Nicky Correspondence: Being the Secret and Intimate Telegrams Exchanged Between the Kaiser and the Tsar. Ed. Herman Bernstein. New York: 1917.
• Paul Benckendorff, Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo. London: 1927.
• Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress of Russia: A Biography. London: 1928.
• Pierre Gilliard, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court. New York: 1921.
• A. A. Mossolov (Mosolov), At the Court of the Last Tsar. London: 1935.
• Anna Vyrubova, Memories of the Russian Court. London: 1923.
• A.Yarmolinsky, editor, "The Memoirs of Count Witte". New York & Toronto: 1921.
• Sir George Buchanan (British Ambassador) My Mission to Russia & Other Diplomatic Memories (2 vols, Cassell, 1923)
• Meriel Buchanan, Dissolution of an Empire, Cassell, 1932

Gleb Botkin, The Real Romanovs, Fleming H. Revell Co, 1931

• Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalev, The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

External links

• Template:Dmoz
• The Execution of Tsar Nicholas II, 1918, EyeWitness to History.
• Letters of Nicholas II.
• Tsar at Stavka.
• Letters of the Tsar to the Tsaritsa 1914–17.
• Letters of Tsaritsa to the Tsar 1914–17.
• Letters of Nicholas II written from the exile, compiled by Sarah Miller.
• At the Court of the Last Tsar — the memoirs of Mossolov, head of Nicholas's Court Chancellery from 1900–16.
• Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo by Count Paul Beckendorff.
• Thirteen Years at the Russian Court by Pierre Gilliard.
• Six Years at the Russian Court by Margaret Eager.
• Memories of the Russian Court by Anna Vyrubova.
• Marriage Ceremony of Nicholas and Alexandra.
• Nicholas and Alexandra Exhibition
• Yakov Yurovsky's account of the Execution of the Imperial Family.
• Ipatiev House — Romanov Memorial An immensely detailed site on the historical context, circumstances and drama surrounding the Romanov's execution.
• The Murder of Russia's Imperial Family, Nicolay Sokolov. Investigation of murder of the Romanov Imperial Family in 1918 Template:Ru icon.
• Nikolai II — Life and Death, Edvard Radzinski. Later published in English as The Last Tsar: the Life and Death of Nicholas II Template:Ru icon.
• New Russian Martyrs. Tsar Nicholas and His Family. A story of life, canonization. Photoalbum

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