He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian empire alone. Determined that Russia should not be left out in the scramble for colonial possessions, Nicholas encouraged Russian expansion in Manchuria.
This provoked war with Japan in The resulting Russian defeat led to strikes and riots. In January , on 'Bloody Sunday', the army in St Petersburg shot at a crowd demanding radical reforms. Opposition to the tsar grew and Nicholas was forced to grant a constitution and establish a parliament, the Duma. Nicholas's concessions were only limited. Changes were made in the voting laws to prevent the election of radicals and the secret police continued to crush opposition.
However, the Duma did give many more people, especially the middle classes, a voice in government. In mid Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with him. With Nicholas often away, Alexandra took a more active role in government. The half-basement room of the Ipatiev house where the imperial family was kept by the Bolsheviks.
In November , Bolshevik revolutionaries led by Vladimir Lenin took over the government. Nicholas tried to convince the British and then the French to give him asylum—after all, his wife was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. But both countries refused, and the Romanovs found themselves in the hands of the newly formed revolutionary government.
The Romanovs new life was dramatically different from the regal, opulent life they had lived in the Winter Palace in St. Instead, they were shuffled from house to house.
The family that had once lived in a regal home now camped out in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, a house with no bed linens, lots of dust, and not enough plates or silverware.
Soldiers hassled them, drawing lewd images on the walls of the bathroom and covering them with obscene poems about Alexandra. Finally, late at night on July 17, , the Romanov family was awoken and told to get ready for another move. Still hoping to escape , the women packed up their things and put on clothing into which they had sewn precious jewelry, religious icons and a large amount of money. Then, unexpectedly, their captors turned on them, attacking them first with bullets, then with the butts of guns, bayonets and even their own heels and fists.
All seven of the Romanovs—and the last gasp of the Russian monarchy—were dead. What may have looked like an impromptu murder was in fact a carefully planned act of violence.
Yakov Yurovsky, who had coordinated and led the killings, was personally recognized by Lenin, the head of the Bolsheviks, for the murders. Lenin, Yurovsky, and the revolutionaries all saw Nicholas and the monarchy he stood for as a cancer that made it impossible for the working class to rise. But ironically, the assassinations they orchestrated to murder the monarchy for good had consequences for their cause.
On 25 August , three assassins wearing military uniforms, bombed a public reception Stolypin was holding at his home on Aptekarsky Island. Stolypin was only slightly injured, but 28 others were killed. Stolypin's year-old daughter had both legs broken and his 3-year-old son also had injuries.
The Tsar suggested that the Stolypin family moved into the Winter Palace for protection. Elections for the Second Duma took place in Peter Stolypin , used his powers to exclude large numbers from voting. This reduced the influence of the left but when the Second Duma convened in February, , it still included a large number of reformers. He blamed Lenin and his fellow-Bolsheviks for this action because of the revolutionary speeches that they had been making in exile.
Members of the moderate Constitutional Democrat Party Kadets were especially angry about this decision. The leaders, including Prince Georgi Lvov and Pavel Milyukov , travelled to Vyborg, a Finnish resort town, in protest of the government.
Milyukov drafted the Vyborg Manifesto. In the manifesto, Milyukov called for passive resistance, non-payment of taxes and draft avoidance. Stolypin took revenge on the rebels and "more than leading Kadets were brought to trial and suspended from their part in the Vyborg Manifesto. Stolypin's repressive methods created a great deal of conflict. Lionel Kochan , the author of Russia in Revolution , pointed out: "Between November and June , from the ministry of the interior alone, persons were killed and wounded.
Altogether, up to the end of October , 3, government officials of all ranks, from governor-generals to village gendarmes, had been killed or wounded. The Russian government considered Germany to be the main threat to its territory. This was reinforced by Germany's decision to form the Triple Alliance.
Under the terms of this military alliance, Germany , Austria-Hungary and Italy agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia. Peter Stolypin instituted a new court system that made it easier for the arrest and conviction of political revolutionaries.
In the first six months of their existence the courts passed 1, death sentences. It has been claimed that over 3, suspects were convicted and executed by these special courts between and As a result of this action the hangman's noose in Russia became known as "Stolypin's necktie". Peter Stolypin now made changes to the electoral law.
This excluded national minorities and dramatically reduced the number of people who could vote in Poland, Siberia, the Caucasus and in Central Asia.
The new electoral law also gave better representation to the nobility and gave greater power to the large landowners to the detriment of the peasants. Changes were also made to the voting in towns and now those owning their own homes elected over half the urban deputies.
In Stolypin introduced a new electoral law, by-passing the constitution, which assured a right-wing majority in the Duma. The Third Duma met on 14th November The former coalition of Socialist-Revolutionaries , Mensheviks , Bolsheviks , Octobrists and Constitutional Democrat Party , were now outnumbered by the reactionaries and the nationalists.
Unlike the previous Dumas, this one ran its full-term of five years. The revolutionaries were now determined to assassinate Stolypin and there were several attempts on his life. Nicholas II was with him at the time: "During the second interval we had just left the box, as it was so hot, when we heard two sounds as if something had been dropped.
I thought an opera glass might have fallen on somebody's head and ran back into the box to look. To the right I saw a group of officers and other people. They seemed to be dragging someone along. Women were shrieking and, directly in front of me in the stalls, Stolypin was standing.
He slowly turned his face towards me and with his left hand made the sign of the Cross in the air. Only then did I notice he was very pale and that his right hand and uniform were bloodstained. He slowly sank into his chair and began to unbutton his tunic. People were trying to lynch the assassin.
I am sorry to say the police rescued him from the crowd and took him to as isolated room for his first examination. Grigori Rasputin , the son of a Russian peasant, arrived in St.
Petersburg in , Rasputin met Hermogen, the Bishop of Saratov. The Tsar's only son, Alexei, suffered from haemophilia a disease whereby the blood does not clot if a wound occurs. When Alexei was taken seriously ill in , Rasputin was called to the royal palace. He managed to stop the bleeding and from then on he became a member of the royal entourage. The Tsarina was completely convinced by the supernatural power of Rasputin. She attached physical power to objects handled by Rasputin.
She sent Rasputin's stick and comb to the tsar so that he might benefit from Grigori's vigour when attending ministerial councils. The Tsarina became very dependent on Rasputin. One one occasion, when he had to spend time outside St. Petersburg, she wrote: "How distraught I am without you. My soul is only at peace, I only rest, when you, my teacher, are seated beside me and I kiss your hands and lean my head on your blessed shoulders Then I only have one wish: to sleep for centuries on your shoulders, in the embraces.
Ariadna Tyrkova , the wife of the British journalist, Harold Williams , wrote: "Throughout Russia, both at the front and at home, rumour grew ever louder concerning the pernicious influence exercised by the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, at whose side rose the sinister figure of Gregory Rasputin. On 12 July, , a year-old peasant woman named Chionya Guseva attempted to assassinate Grigori Rasputin by stabbing him in the stomach outside his home in Pokrovskoye.
Rasputin was seriously wounded and a local doctor who performed emergency surgery saved his life. Guseva claimed to have acted alone, having read about Rasputin in the newspapers and believing him to be a "false prophet and even an Antichrist. Sazonov was of the opinion that in the event of a war, Russia's membership of the Triple Entente would enable it to make territorial gains from neighbouring countries.
Sazonov sent a telegram to the Russian ambassador in London asking him to make clear to the British government that the Tsar was committed to a war with Germany. On that day the danger of a German hegemony will be finally removed, and each one of us will be able to devote himself quietly to his own affairs. In the international crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand , the Tsar made it clear that he was willing to go to war over this issue, Rasputin was an outspoken critic of this policy and joined forces with two senior figures, Sergei Witte and Pyotr Durnovo , to prevent the war.
Durnovo told the Tsar that a war with Germany would be "mutually dangerous" to both countries, no matter who won. Witte added that "there must inevitably break out in the conquered country a social revolution, which by the very nature of things, will spread to the country of the victor. Sergei Witte realised that because of its economic situation, Russia would lose a war with any of its rivals.
Bernard Pares met Witte and Rasputin several times in the years leading up to the First World War : "Count Witte never swerved from his conviction, firstly, that Russia must avoid the war at all costs, and secondly, that she must work for economic friendship with France and Germany to counteract the preponderance of England.
Rasputin was opposed to the war for reasons as good as Witte's. He was for peace between all nations and between all religions. He advanced slowly into the south western corner of the province with the intention of linking up with General Paul von Rennenkampf advancing from the north east. They made contact on 22nd August, , and for six days the Russians, with their superior numbers, had a few successes.
However, by 29th August, Samsanov's Second Army was surrounded. General Samsonov attempted to retreat but now in a German cordon, most of his troops were slaughtered or captured. The Battle of Tannenberg lasted three days. Only 10, of the , Russian soldiers managed to escape. Shocked by the disastrous outcome of the battle, Samsanov committed suicide. The Germans, who lost 20, men in the battle, were able to take over 92, Russian prisoners.
On 9th September, , General von Rennenkampf ordered his remaining troops to withdraw. By the end of the month the German Army had regained all the territory lost during the initial Russian onslaught.
The attempted invasion of Prussia had cost Russia almost a quarter of a million men. By December, , the Russian Army had 6,, men. However, they only had 4,, rifles. Untrained troops were ordered into battle without adequate arms or ammunition. And because the Russian Army had about one surgeon for every 10, men, many wounded of its soldiers died from wounds that would have been treated on the Western Front. With medical staff spread out across a mile front, the likelihood of any Russian soldier receiving any medical treatment was close to zero".
He was disturbed when he received the following information from General Alexei Brusilov : "In recent battles a third of the men had no rifles. These poor devils had to wait patiently until their comrades fell before their eyes and they could pick up weapons. The army is drowning in its own blood. Alexander Kerensky complained that: "The Tsarina's blind faith in Rasputin led her to seek his counsel not only in personal matters but also on questions of state policy.
General Alekseyev, held in high esteem by Nicholas II, tried to talk to the Tsarina about Rasputin, but only succeeded in making an implacable enemy of her. General Alexseyev told me later about his profound concern on learning that a secret map of military operations had found its way into the Tsarina's hands.
But like many others, he was powerless to take any action. Rasputin served as her adviser and over the next few months she dismissed ministers and their deputies in rapid succession.
In letters to her husband she called his ministers as "fools and idiots". On 7th July, , the Tsar wrote to his wife and complained about the problems he faced fighting the war: "Again that cursed question of shortage of artillery and rifle ammunition - it stands in the way of an energetic advance. If we should have three days of serious fighting we might run out of ammunition altogether. Without new rifles it is impossible to fill up the gaps If we had a rest from fighting for about a month our condition would greatly improve.
It is understood, of course, that what I say is strictly for you only. Please do not say a word to anyone. In two million Russian soldiers were killed or seriously wounded and a third of a million were taken prisoner. Millions of peasants were conscripted into the Tsar's armies but supplies of rifles and ammunition remained inadequate. It is estimated that one third of Russia's able-bodied men were serving in the army. The peasants were therefore unable to work on the farms producing the usual amount of food.
By November, , food prices were four times as high as before the war. As a result strikes for higher wages became common in Russia's cities. Rumours began to circulate that Rasputin and Alexandra Fedorovna were leaders of a pro-German court group and were seeking a separate peace with the Central Powers.
No one opens your eyes to the true role which this man Rasputin is playing. His presence in Your Majesty's Court undermines confidence in the Supreme Power and may have an evil effect on the fate of the dynasty and turn the hearts of the people from their Emperor.
Mansfield Smith-Cumming , the head of MI6 , became very concerned by the influence Rasputin was having on Russia's foreign policy. Samuel Hoare was assigned to the British intelligence mission with the Russian general staff.
Soon afterwards he was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel and Mansfield Smith-Cumming appointed him as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service in Petrograd. One of their main tasks was to deal with Rasputin who was considered to be "one of the most potent of the baleful Germanophil forces in Russia. The main fear was that Russia might negotiate a separate peace with Germany, thereby releasing the seventy German divisions tied down on the Eastern Front.
One MI6 agent wrote: "German intrigue was becoming more intense daily. Enemy agents were busy whispering of peace and hinting how to get it by creating disorder, rioting, etc. Things looked very black. Romania was collapsing, and Russia herself seemed weakening.
The failure in communications, the shortness of foods, the sinister influence which seemed to be clogging the war machine, Rasputin the drunken debaucher influencing Russia's policy, what was to the be the end of it all?
Samuel Hoare reported in December that poor leadership and inadequate weaponry had led to Russian war fatigue: "I am confident that Russia will never fight through another winter.
At the same time Vladimir Purishkevich , the leader of the monarchists in the Duma , was also attempted to organize the elimination of Rasputin. That is simply essential now, since otherwise everything will be finished You too must take part in it. Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov knows all about it and is helping. It will take place in the middle of December, when Dmitri comes back Not a word to anyone about what I've written. Yusupov replied the following day: "Many thanks for your mad letter.
I could not understand half of it, but I can see that you are preparing for some wild action My chief objection is that you have decided upon everything without consulting me I can see by your letter that you are wildly enthusiastic, and ready to climb up walls Don't you dare do anything without me, or I shall not come at all!
Lazovert was responsible for providing the cyanide for the wine and the cakes. He was also asked to arrange for the disposal of the body. Yusupov later admitted in Lost Splendor that on 29th December, , Rasputin was invited to his home: "The bell rang, announcing the arrival of Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov and my other friends. I showed them into the dining room and they stood for a little while, silently examining the spot where Rasputin was to meet his end.
I took from the ebony cabinet a box containing the poison and laid it on the table. Dr Lazovert put on rubber gloves and ground the cyanide of potassium crystals to powder. Then, lifting the top of each cake, he sprinkled the inside with a dose of poison, which, according to him, was sufficient to kill several men instantly. There was an impressive silence. We all followed the doctor's movements with emotion. There remained the glasses into which cyanide was to be poured. It was decided to do this at the last moment so that the poison should not evaporate and lose its potency.
Vladimir Purishkevich supported this story in his book, The Murder of Rasputin : "We sat down at the round tea table and Yusupov invited us to drink a glass of tea and to try the cakes before they had been doctored.
The quarter of an hour which we spent at the table seemed like an eternity to me Yusupov gave Dr Lazovert several pieces of the potassium cyanide and he put on the gloves which Yusupov had procured and began to grate poison into a plate with a knife.
Then picking out all the cakes with pink cream there were only two varieties, pink and chocolate , he lifted off the top halves and put a good quantity of poison in each one, and then replaced the tops to make them look right. When the pink cakes were ready, we placed them on the plates with the brown chocolate ones. Then, we cut up two of the pink ones and, making them look as if they had been bitten into, we put these on different plates around the table.
Lazovert now went out to collect Rasputin in his car on the evening of 29th December, While the other four men waited at the home of Yusupov. According to Lazovert: "At midnight the associates of the Prince concealed themselves while I entered the car and drove to the home of the monk. He admitted me in person. Rasputin was in a gay mood. We drove rapidly to the home of the Prince and descended to the library, lighted only by a blazing log in the huge chimney-place.
A small table was spread with cakes and rare wines - three kinds of the wine were poisoned and so were the cakes. The monk threw himself into a chair, his humour expanding with the warmth of the room.
He told of his successes, his plots, of the imminent success of the German arms and that the Kaiser would soon be seen in Petrograd. At a proper moment he was offered the wine and the cakes. He drank the wine and devoured the cakes. Hours slipped by, but there was no sign that the poison had taken effect. The monk was even merrier than before. We were seized with an insane dread that this man was inviolable, that he was superhuman, that he couldn't be killed.
It was a frightful sensation. He glared at us with his black, black eyes as though he read our minds and would fool us. Vladimir Purishkevich later recalled that Felix Yusupov joined them upstairs and exclaimed: "It is impossible. Just imagine, he drank two glasses filled with poison, ate several pink cakes and, as you can see, nothing has happened, absolutely nothing, and that was at least fifteen minutes ago!
I cannot think what we can do He is now sitting gloomily on the divan and the only effect that I can see of the poison is that he is constantly belching and that he dribbles a bit. Gentlemen, what do you advise that I do? Yusupov later recalled : "I looked at my victim with dread, as he stood before me, quiet and trusting Rasputin stood before me motionless, his head bent and his eyes on the crucifix.
I slowly raised the crucifix. I slowly raised the revolver. Where should I aim, at the temple or at the heart? A shudder swept over me; my arm grew rigid, I aimed at his heart and pulled the trigger. Rasputin gave a wild scream and crumpled up on the bearskin. For a moment I was appalled to discover how easy it was to kill a man. A flick of a finger and what had been a living, breathing man only a second before, now lay on the floor like a broken doll.
Stanislaus de Lazovert agrees with this account except that he was uncertain who fired the shot: "With a frightful scream Rasputin whirled and fell, face down, on the floor. The others came bounding over to him and stood over his prostrate, writhing body.
We left the room to let him die alone, and to plan for his removal and obliteration. Suddenly we heard a strange and unearthly sound behind the huge door that led into the library. The door was slowly pushed open, and there was Rasputin on his hands and knees, the bloody froth gushing from his mouth, his terrible eyes bulging from their sockets. With an amazing strength he sprang toward the door that led into the gardens, wrenched it open and passed out.
We heard him fall with a groan, and later when we approached the body he was very still and cold and - dead. Felix Yusupov added: "Rasputin lay on his back. His features twitched in nervous spasms; his hands were clenched, his eyes closed.
A bloodstain was spreading on his silk blouse. A few minutes later all movement ceased. We bent over his body to examine it. The doctor declared that the bullet had struck him in the region of the heart. There was no possibility of doubt: Rasputin was dead. We turned off the light and went up to my room, after locking the basement door. Romanov drove the men and Rasputin's body to Petrovskii Bridge.
According to Vladimir Purishkevich: "We dragged Rasputin's corpse into the grand duke's car. Ice had formed, but we broke it and threw him in. The next day search was made for Rasputin, but no trace was found.
The following day the Tsarina wrote to her husband about the disappearance of Rasputin: "We are sitting here together - can you imagine our feelings - our friend has disappeared. Felix Yusupov pretends he never came to the house and never asked him. I fear that these two wretched boys Felix Yusupov and Dmitri Romanov have committed a frightful crime but have not yet lost all hope. Rasputin's body was found on 19th December by a river policeman who was walking on the ice.
He noticed a fur coat trapped beneath, approximately 65 metres from the bridge. The ice was cut open and Rasputin's frozen body discovered. The post mortem was held the following day. Major-General Popel carried out the investigation of the murder.
By this time Dr. Tsar Nicholas II ordered the three men to be expelled from Petrograd. He rejected a petition to allow the conspirators to stay in the city. He replied that "no one had the right to commit murder.
In short, it was the application of lynch law, the taking of law and judgment forcibly into private hands. As Nicholas II was supreme command of the Russian Army he was linked to the country's military failures and there was a strong decline in his support in Russia. George Buchanan , the British Ambassador in Russia, went to see the Tsar: "I went on to say that there was now a barrier between him and his people, and that if Russia was still united as a nation it was in opposing his present policy.
The people, who have rallied so splendidly round their Sovereign on the outbreak of war, had seen how hundreds of thousands of lives had been sacrificed on account of the lack of rifles and munitions; how, owing to the incompetence of the administration there had been a severe food crisis. Buchanan then went on to talk about Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna : "I next called His Majesty's attention to the attempts being made by the Germans, not only to create dissension between the Allies, but to estrange him from his people.
Their agents were everywhere at work. They were pulling the strings, and were using as their unconscious tools those who were in the habit of advising His Majesty as to the choice of his Ministers.
They indirectly influenced the Empress through those in her entourage, with the result that, instead of being loved, as she ought to be, Her Majesty was discredited and accused of working in German interests. Krymov told Rodzianko that the officers and men no longer had faith in Nicholas II and the army was willing to support the Duma if it took control of the government of Russia.
If you decide on such an extreme step the overthrow of the Tsar , we will support you. Clearly there is no other way. He also criticised the impact that his wife was having on the situation and told him that "you must find a way to remove the Empress from politics".
The Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich shared the views of Rodzianko and sent a letter to the Tsar: "The unrest grows; even the monarchist principle is beginning to totter; and those who defend the idea that Russia cannot exist without a Tsar lose the ground under their feet, since the facts of disorganization and lawlessness are manifest.
A situation like this cannot last long. I repeat once more - it is impossible to rule the country without paying attention to the voice of the people, without meeting their needs, without a willingness to admit that the people themselves understand their own needs. The First World War was having a disastrous impact on the Russian economy. Food was in short supply and this led to rising prices. By January the price of commodities in Petrograd had increased six-fold.
In an attempt to increase their wages, industrial workers went on strike and in Petrograd people took to the street demanding food. On 11th February, , a large crowd marched through the streets of Petrograd breaking shop windows and shouting anti-war slogans.
Petrograd was a city of 2,, swollen with an influx of of over , wartime workers. According to Harrison E. Salisbury , in the last ten days of January, the city had received 21 carloads of grain and flour per day instead of the wagons needed to feed the city.
Okhrana , the secret police, warned that "with every day the food question becomes more acute and it brings down cursing of the most unbridled kind against anyone who has any connection with food supplies. Harold Williams , a journalist working for the Daily Chronicle reported details of serious food shortages: "All attention here is concentrated on the food question, which for the moment has become unintelligible. Long queues before the bakers' shops have long been a normal feature of life in the city.
Grey bread is now sold instead of white, and cakes are not baked. Crowds wander about the streets, mostly women and boys, with a sprinkling of workmen. Here and there windows are broken and a few bakers' shops looted. It was reported that in one demonstration in the streets by the Nevsky Prospect, the women called out to the soldiers, "Comrades, take away your bayonets, join us! The soldiers hesitated: "They threw swift glances at their own comrades.
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