Nicholas II Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Nicholas II
OCCUPATION: Tsar
BIRTH DATE: May 18, 1868
DEATH DATE: July 17, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH: Pushkin, Russia
PLACE OF DEATH: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Originally: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov
AKA: Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov
AKA: Tsar Nicholas II
AKA: Czar Nicholas II
Nickname: "Bloody Nicholas"
AKA: Nicholas II

Best Known For

Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule. His poor handling of Bloody Sunday and Russia’s role in World War I led to his abdication and execution.

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Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov

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Nicholas II’s ministers consequently resigned in rapid succession and were replaced by Alexandra’s chosen candidates, as influenced by Rasputin until his 1916 murder by nobles.

Decline and Death

Over the course of WWI, Russia endured major losses and was subject to extreme poverty and high inflation. The Russian public blamed Nicholas II for his poor military decisions, and Empress Alexandra for her ill-advised role in government. Because Alexandra was originally from Germany, suspicion spread that she might have even deliberately sabotaged Russia, ensuring its defeat in the war.

By February of 1917, Nicholas II’s subjects were in such an uproar that riots broke out in St. Petersburg. Nicholas was still headquartered at Mogilev at the time. When he tried to get home to Petrograd, the Duma, who had by then turned on him, prevented him from boarding the train. After the Duma elected their own provisional committee built of progressive bloc members, and the soldiers sent to quash the St. Petersburg riots mutinied, Nicholas II had no other choice but to step down from the monarchy. On March 15, 1917 he abdicated the throne. He and his family were then taken to the Ural Mountains and placed under house arrest.

In the fall of 1917 Russia’s provisional government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks. In the spring of 1918 Russia was engaged in a civil war. On July 17, 1918, Nicholas II and his family were murdered by Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, thus ending more than three centuries of the Romanov dynasty’s rule. Historians have long speculated as to whether Nicholas II’s daughter, Anastasia, might have survived the shooting.