The Romanov tragedy: How Russia's imperial dynasty collapsed

A century before the reign of Nicholas II, Tsar Alexander I took the throne of Russia in 1801.

At the time, Europe was in the middle of a series of dramatic wars with Napoleon, which Russia was constantly involved in.

As a result, the young Tsar's initial attempts to modernize Russia's military and administrative systems were driven by the need to counter the French Emperor's expansionist ambitions.

In fact, in 1812, Napoleon had launched a massive military invasion of Russia. Alexander had to retreat from Moscow and burn his own capital city to the ground to prevent the French from taking it.

Eventually, Napoleon admitted defeat and withdrew from Alexander's lands, but it showed the Tsar that his nation was not able to compete with modern military superpowers like Napoleon's France.

Even before 1812, Alexander had chosen to surround himself with liberal advisors in order to initiate significant legal and educational reforms in Russia to modernize it as quickly as possible.

To this end, he established new universities, and the introduced new laws based upon the new 'enlightened ideals' of Western Europe.

However, many of the noble families of Russia feared that these changes would gradually reduce the wealth and power they had enjoyed under the old systems.

As a result, they put pressure on the Tsar to slowly undo some of these liberal policies.

So, by the latter part of his reign, Alexander had become increasingly conservative.

This was due to the fact that Alexander was a deeply religious and introspective man.

On a personal level, he was often torn between his duty as a ruler and his personal interest in spiritual isolation.

As he grew older, he became more detached from his day-to-day role as ruler of his country and focused mostly on religious mysticism.

For those members of his government that wanted to progress the modernization of Russia, this became a source of deep frustration.

Finally, Alexander I died in 1825 from typhus, although there were rumors that he had secretly abdicated the throne in order to retreat into a religious life as a monk.

However, there is no confirmed evidence of this.

Following Alexander I's death in 1825, a revolt broke out almost immediately, led by those who had grown most discontent with the Tsar's autocratic rule in his final years.

These rebels had a deep desire for constitutional reform in Russia which would give more power to the Russian people, rather than the Tsar wielding all control.

The revolt was actually sparked by an ascension crisis following the death of Alexander I.

His brother, Constantine, had immediately renounced his claim to the throne, but this was not widely known, which led to confusion and an opportunity for dissent.

When Nicholas I was declared Tsar instead, a group of liberal-minded army officers, known as the Decembrists, saw a chance to challenge the autocratic system.

The Decembrists included a number of intellectuals and reformers who had been influenced by the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Many of them had fought in the Napoleonic Wars and had been exposed to more liberal political ideas in Europe.

Their demands included the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, the abolition of serfdom, and broader political representation.

So, on December 26, 1825, they led their troops into Senate Square in St Petersburg.

There, they refused to swear allegiance to Nicholas I and called for the writing of a constitution.

The revolt, however, was poorly prepared and lacked enough support among the people to succeed.

In response, Nicholas I acted swiftly and sent in troops that were loyal to him to suppress the uprising.

The Decembrists were defeated, and, in the aftermath, five leaders were executed, while many others were exiled to Siberia.

Unfortunately, the need to use violent suppression of a revolt so early in his reign set a repressive tone for the rest of Nicholas I's rule.

He lacked trust in those around him and in the Russian people. So, he ordered that newspapers and publications should be censored, that his perceived enemies should be under surveillance, and openly clamped down on any expression of liberal ideas in Russia.

However, the Decembrist Revolt's was the first open challenge to autocratic rule in Russia, and it laid bare the growing divide between the Tsar and those seeking reform.

The memory of it continued to inspire future generations of reformers and revolutionaries.

Nicholas I soon became known as the 'Iron Tsar' and he openly stated that he would rigidly adhere to a more traditional kind of rule.

This was most clearly seen in his belief in the 'divine right of kings', which stated that the Tsar had been put in power by God himself and, as such, could not be challenged by anyone.

To reinforce this ideology, the Tsar relied upon the Russian Orthodox Church to validate his authority.

As such, his motto for how he would rule became, "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality".

This meant that a love for the Church, the Tsar, and for Russia were the core elements that his people needed to foster in order to live under his rule.

However, Nicholas did make some changes to his country, but these were mainly in an attempt to strengthen the military: to make it more disciplined and effective.

Unfortunately, these efforts were often undermined by corruption, inefficiencies, and ongoing resistance from the entrenched nobility who wanted to protect their traditional positions of power.

One of the greatest criticisms was Nicholas I's attempts to maintain the outdated and increasingly untenable feudal social system of Russia, especially the position of the peasants, known as 'serfs'.

By the mid-19th century, serfs accounted for approximately 23.1 million out of 62.5 million citizens, roughly 37.7% of the population.

They provided a stable and cheap labor force that supported agricultural production, which was crucial for Russia's economy.

As part of this system, the peasants lacked a lot of freedoms, as they could be bought and sold with the land they inhabited.

This was because they were obliged to work on the land owned by their landlords, who were the rich nobles, and were subject to their whims.

Nevertheless, the serfs were an important part of the Russian military, as they were conscripted to fight in the army when needed.

However, the reliance on serfdom ultimately hindered Russia's economic development compared to Western Europe, which was undergoing rapid industrialization.

Nicholas I did recognize that serfdom was a significant issue, but he believed that attempting to abolish it abruptly would be even more harmful to the stability of the state.

While the Tsar's government made several attempts to reform serfdom, forming multiple committees to address the issue, these efforts were largely unsuccessful.

Once he was happy with his improvements to his military, Nicholas tried to exert his influence over other countries, particularly those who had experienced liberal and nationalist uprisings that had tried to overthrow their monarchies.

Nicholas I feared revolution, which he saw as a threat not only to Russia but to the entire European order.

He believed that peace and strong monarchical power in European states were in Russia's best interests.

Consequently, he intervened in various European conflicts to support existing regimes.

For instance, he sent Russian troops to assist the Austrian Empire in quelling the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849.

As a result, Nicholas I was called the 'Gendarme of Europe', which reflected his commitment to maintaining the status quo and supporting conservative regimes.

However, his ambitions in the Balkans and the Black Sea region led to the Crimean War (1853-1856), a conflict that exposed the underlying weaknesses of his military in comparison to the more modern European nations.

Then, Nicholas's reign ended in 1855, when he died from pneumonia. At the time of his death, Nicholas was seen in two different ways by his own people.

On one hand, he was a ruler committed to order, stability, and the preservation of the traditional Russian way of life.

But on the other hand, his inflexibility, repression, and failure to address Russia's underlying social problems sowed the seeds of future unrest and reform.

When Alexander II ascended to the throne in 1855, he inherited a Russia deeply scarred by the Crimean War and burdened by the contradictions of serfdom and autocracy.

The lessons learnt from Russia's costly defeat in the Crimean War prompted Alexander II to embark on his own reforms, which would earn him the nickname the 'Tsar Liberator'.

In fact, he declared that he was departing from the rigid conservatism of his father, Nicholas I, and wanted to usher in a period of social transformation.

The centerpiece of Alexander's reforms was the Emancipation Edict of 1861, which finally abolished serfdom in Russia.

By this point, it freed over 23 million peasants (40-50% of Russia’s population) and granted them the right to own land.

Unfortunately, in practice, the land they received was often insufficient for sustainable agriculture, since it was of poor quality or too small to support a family, especially in the south where plots were smaller than what they had used as serfs.

Also, the nobility, who used to own the land and the serfs, demanded financial compensation of their losses.

The government therefore that the newly freed peasants had to make 'redemption payments' over 49 years for the land they received.

These payments were more than the peasants earned from their farming, which meant that they remained in poverty by effectively replacing one form of servitude with another.

In addition, Alexander II wanted to implement a series of other reforms that reduced the feeling among the people that the Tsar was a dictatorial autocrat.

So, he introduced changes to the legal system and established independent courts and trial by jury, which were considered to be more fair.

Also, he relaxed censorship, which allowed for a more vibrant and critical press, and initiated educational reforms to bring Russia's institutions and closer to European standards.

Unfortunately for Alexander, the very reforms he hoped would make the Russian people appreciate him more also unleashed political forces that he struggled to control.

For example, the emancipation of the serfs and the growth of an educated middle class led to increased demands for political representation and constitutional government.

The free press encouraged radical political movements which openly challenged the very foundations of the autocratic system and called for the downfall of the Tsar.

With each passing year, Alexander became increasingly alarmed by the responses to his reforms and introducing some repression and a retreat from some of his earlier liberal policies.

Tragically, Alexander's reign ended with his assassination on March 13, 1881, a victim of a terrorist bomb thrown by members of the radical group 'People's Will'.

This group was disillusioned with the incomplete reforms of the 1860s, which they felt did not adequately address the poverty and oppression faced by the Russian peasantry.

Despite Alexander II's efforts to modernize Russia, the People's Will viewed his reforms as insufficient.

Instead, they sought to overthrow the autocratic regime and establish a socialist society grounded in the communal traditions of the peasantry.

The violent assassination of Alexander II in 1881 shocked many in Russia and triggered a shift away from rapid social reforms under the rule of his son.

In response to his father’s killing, Tsar Alexander III issued the Manifesto of Unshakable Autocracy, which rolled back many of Alexander II’s liberal reforms and strengthening autocratic rule in Russia.

He also strengthened the powers of the secret police, which allowed him to crack down on political dissent, and imposed strict censorship on the press again.

Universities were brought under tighter control, and political gatherings were suppressed.

Religious minorities that were considered to be of political concern were targeted in the infamous May Laws of 1882: particularly Jews.

These measures reminded people of the of 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality' of his grandfather, Nicholas I.

Internally, Alexander III openly resisted calls for constitutional reform and worked to diminish the influence of the zemstvos, local elected assemblies that had gained prominence under his father's rule.

However, Alexander III’s reign did see some economic development under Finance Minister Sergei Witte, whose policies encouraged industrialization in Russia.

Externally, Alexander III pursued a more cautious and pragmatic foreign policy.

He wanted to avoid entanglements in conflicts and focused instead on strengthening Russia's position through diplomacy and alliance-building.

As a result, he improved relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary, while maintaining a balance of power in the Balkans.

In 1894, Alexander III's health began to deteriorate due to nephritis, a type of kidney disease.

To improve his condition, he stayed at his cousin in Corfu, Greece, but his health continued to decline.

Ultimately, he passed away at the Maly Palace in Livadia, Crimea, on November 1, 1894, at the age of 49. 

This meant that the discontent with his reactionary policies and ongoing social tensions were left unresolved and had to be faced by the next Tsar, Alexander III's his eldest son, Nicholas II.

When Nicholas II took the throne in 1894, Russia was on the edge of a crisis. Its population of over 150 million people were still mostly peasants who lived in difficult conditions and were growing unsatisfied with the Tsar.

Unfortunately, thigs started poorly for Nicholas II when, at his coronation in 1896, over 1,300 common people were killed in a stampede during the celebration in Moscow, in what is known as the Khodynka Tragedy. 

The young Tsar did not know how to response to this and was quickly criticized as being ill-prepared and indecisive as a ruler.

Although, the early years of Nicholas's reign saw a continuation of his father's conservative policies.

In the face of growing calls for a constitutional government and political representation, Nicholas clung to the belief in autocratic rule.

Then, when the disastrous Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 against the growing Empire of Japan turned out to be a humiliating defeat for Russia, Nicholas II lost a lot of respect of the common people for being a poor military leader.

The war ended even worse for Russia with the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, which forced Tsar Nicholas II to concede significant territorial losses to Japan.

His failure triggered a wave of protests and strikes across the country, most of which were non-violent.

Then, on January 22, 1905, Imperial Guard troops of Nicholas II opened fire on a group of peaceful protesters who wanted to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II at the Winter Palace.

200 people were killed and injured approximately 800 others in what was dubbed 'Bloody Sunday'.

The massacre of civilians by the Tsar's own soldiers provoked widespread outrage and led to a series of strikes and uprisings across the Russian Empire.

This was the start of the widespread 1905 Russian Revolution. The sheer size and scale of the uprisings forced Nicholas II to finally grant some limited reforms to his people, including the creation of the Duma: Russia’s first elected legislative body.

Despite these concessions, Nicholas's never trusted the Duma. He frequently clashed with the elected representatives, and even resorted to dissolving the Duma on several occasions.

This was seen as the Tsar's failure to embrace genuine constitutional reform.

Instead, Nicholas II's preference to listen to his reactionary advisors further alienated the emerging middle class and turned large sections of the working class and peasantry against their ruler.

When World War I in 1914, the tensions in Russia were initially put aside as the people united behind the Tsar.

However, as the war dragged on, the woefully inadequate and outdated Russian military, as well as the government's poor handling of the war effort became increasingly apparent.

To turn public opinion back in his favor, Nicholas decided to take personal command of the army.

He hoped that by becoming a war hero, that he could overturn all of the negativity that had built up around him.

Unfortunately, under his leadership, the Russian army continued to suffer continual defeats.

What made things worse was that, while he was away from the capital, his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, became suspiciously close to the controversial figure Rasputin.

Questions about both Nicholas and Alexandra's fitness to rule the country further eroded their credibility.

By the end of 1916, the war's devastating toll on the Russian people, both in terms of lives lost and economic hardship, was the final straw for many segments of the population.

Finally, a massive revolt in Russia broke out on March 8, 1917, in Petrograd (modern-day St. Petersburg).

It has become known as the February Revolution and was the beginning of the end for Nicholas II and the entire Romanov dynasty that had ruled Russia for over 300 years.

Faced with widespread unrest, military mutinies, and the loss of support from key allies, crowds of angry people forced Nicholas to abdicate his throne.

After he agreed to the abdication, the Romanovs were technically still in power under his brother, Grand Duke Michael, who briefly considered holding onto the throne before declining it.

This last action was the final stage in the collapse of the Romanov Dynasty, while Nicholas and his family were placed under house arrest by government soldiers.

In the absence of a monarch, a Provisional Government, initially led by Prince Georgy Lvov and later by Alexander Kerensky, took control of Russia.

However, they also struggled to maintain order while continuing Russia’s involvement in World War I.

They eventually agreed to leave the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 with Germany.

While it allowed Russia to finally exit World War I, the Provisional Government had to surrender significant territorial concessions to Germany and its allies.

Growing dissatisfaction with the new government led to another revolt, known as the October Revolution of 1917.

By its conclusion, the Bolshevik communist party, led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, overthrew the Provisional Government and too power.

Sadly, Nicholas and his family were then ordered to be killed by the Bolsheviks.

Their execution took place on July 17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg.