A Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack on Russian warships at Port Arthur, sinking two of the ships and blockading the harbor. Well-prepared Japanese troops also swarmed the Russian infantry at various points on land. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the Russians suffered one humiliating defeat after another, both on land and sea. Nicholas, who had never thought the Japanese would start a war, was forced to surrender to Japan in September Nicholas II became the first czar to lose a war to an Asian nation.
An estimated 80, Russian soldiers lost their lives in a war that had revealed the czar's utter ineptitude at diplomacy and military affairs. By the winter of , dissatisfaction among the working class in Russia had escalated to the point that numerous strikes were staged in St. Workers, who had hoped for a better future living in cities, instead faced long hours, poor wages, and inadequate housing. Many families went hungry on a regular basis, and housing shortages were so severe that some laborers slept in shifts, sharing a bed with several others.
On January 22, , tens of thousands of workers came together for a peaceful march to the Winter Palace in St. Organized by radical priest Georgy Gapon, protesters were forbidden to bring weapons; instead, they carried religious icons and pictures of the royal family.
Participants also brought with them a petition to present to the czar, stating their list of grievances and seeking his help. Although the czar was not at the palace to receive the petition he had been advised to stay away , thousands of soldiers awaited the crowd. Having been informed incorrectly that the protesters were there to harm the czar and destroy the palace, the soldiers fired into the mob, killing and wounding hundreds. The czar himself did not order the shootings, but he was held responsible.
The unprovoked massacre, called Bloody Sunday, became the catalyst for further strikes and uprisings against the government, called the Russian Revolution. After a massive general strike had brought much of Russia to a halt in October , Nicholas was finally forced to respond to the protests. On October 30, , the czar reluctantly issued the October Manifesto , which created a constitutional monarchy and an elected legislature, known as the Duma. Ever the autocrat, Nicholas made sure the powers of the Duma remained limited—nearly half of the budget was exempted from their approval, and they were not allowed to participate in foreign policy decisions.
The czar also retained full veto power. The royal family rejoiced at the birth of a male heir in Young Alexei seemed healthy at birth, but within a week, as the infant bled uncontrollably from his navel, it was clear that something was seriously wrong. Doctors diagnosed him with hemophilia, an incurable, inherited disease in which the blood will not clot properly.
Even a seemingly minor injury could cause the young Tsesarevich to bleed to death. His horrified parents kept the diagnosis a secret from all but the most immediate family. Empress Alexandra, fiercely protective of her son—and his secret—isolated herself from the outside world.
Desperate to find help for her son, she sought the help of various medical quacks and holy men. One such "holy man," self-proclaimed faith healer Grigori Rasputin, first met the royal couple in and became a close, trusted advisor to the empress. Although rough in manner and unkempt in appearance, Rasputin gained the Empress' trust with his uncanny ability to stop Alexei's bleeding during even the severest of episodes, merely by sitting and praying with him.
Gradually, Rasputin became the empress' closest confidante, able to exert influence upon her regarding affairs of state. Alexandra, in turn, influenced her husband on matters of great importance based upon Rasputin's advice.
The Empress' relationship with Rasputin was baffling to outsiders, who had no idea that the Tsarevich was ill. The fact that the assassin was a Serbian national led Austria to declare war on Serbia.
Nicholas, with the backing of France, felt compelled to protect Serbia, a fellow Slavic nation. His mobilization of the Russian army in August helped to propel the conflict into a full-scale war, drawing Germany into the fray as an ally of Austria-Hungary. In , Nicholas made the calamitous decision to take personal command of the Russian army. Under the czar's poor military leadership, the ill-prepared Russian army was no match for the German infantry.
While Nicholas was away at war, he deputized his wife to oversee affairs of the empire. To the Russian people, however, this was a terrible decision. On March 15, , he abdicated the throne. He and his family were then taken to the Ural Mountains and placed under house arrest.
In the spring of , Russia was engaged in a civil war. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Charles II was the monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland during much of the latter half of the 17th century, marking the Restoration era.
Alexander the Great served as king of Macedonia from to B. During his time of leadership, he united Greece, reestablished the Corinthian League and conquered the Persian Empire. Philip II reigned over Macedonia from to B. He became the head of an empire that was expanded by his son and successor, Alexander the Great.
By winning wars and expanding territories, he established Prussia as a strong military power. Anastasia was the daughter of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II.
After she and her family were executed, rumors claimed that she might have survived. Her rule precipitated the collapse of Russia's imperial government. She was murdered, along with her entire family, in Thus the magnetic Siberian mystic, Rasputin, was able to rise to prominence.
To this day, no satisfactory explanation has been found as to how Rasputin worked his cures, but work them he did, and Alexandra trusted him implicitly as the only person capable of helping her pain-wracked son. Thus, the mangy mystic gained enormous influence over the devout Alexandra, and through her over the Emperor of Russia, all of which only further destabilized the country that was suddenly plunged into a war of worldwide dimensions.
The First World War shocked contemporaries with its brutality and simultaneously, demonstrated the weakness of certain elements of the Russian economy.
If, at the declaration of war in , thousands of citizens enthusiastically cheered Nicholas II on Petersburg's Palace Square, only two years later the popularity of the war among society at large had plummeted. Nicholas' decision to take upon himself the duties of the Supreme Commander and his departure from St.
Petersburg to Headquarters at the front caused him to lose control over the situation in the capital. The active participation of the Empress a German by birth in the running of the government, led to outrageous rumors that resulted in a further weakening of the power of the autocracy.
A disruption in food supplies in Petrograd during the harsh winter of exacerbated the already deep social divisions and quickly led to riots in the capital, and finally to the February Revolution.
In March , Nicholas abdicated in both his name and the name of his underage son, the Tsarevich Alexey. It was assumed that power would pass to his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail, but he refused to accept the crown. The convening of a Constituent Assembly to determine the country's future form of government was announced for the end of , and in the meantime, power passed to the Provisional Government, which consisted of eminent personalities from the State Duma.
However, before the Constituent Assembly could be convened, the Bolsheviks had already seized power in the country. A tragic fate awaited Nicholas and his family. After Nicholas had abdicated in the wake of the February Revolution, he and his family were held under house arrest in the Alexander Palace at Tsarkoe Selo near Petrograd. By decision of the Provisional Government, the former Tsar and his family were exiled to Tobolsk in August , and in the spring of , the Bolsheviks transported them to Ekaterinburg.
Here, in a house belonging to the merchant Ipatiev, Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children were shot and killed in July Defeat in the war with Japan of seriously damaged Russian prestige - and with it the esteem of the monarchy. Japan had launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet based at Port Arthur; throughout the war the Russian navy was found wanting, although the army fared better in repulsing Japanese troops in Manchuria. At the same time as Russia faced war with Japan, there was increasing industrial unrest at home.
Workers who faced long hours and poor conditions increasingly formed protests. In , workers in St Petersburg striked for four days in protest at the declining value of wages in real terms. Georgi Gapon, of the Assembly of Russian Workers, appealed to Nicholas for help in reducing working hours and improving pay and conditions.
A consequent march on the Winter Palace was greeted by armed Cossacks: over protestors were killed and many more wounded. Leon Trotsky founded the St Petersburg Soviet in October, with 50 more being established over the next month in the rest of the country.
In response to such wide-scale protest, and under the advice of close advisers, the Tsar published the 'October Manifesto', which granted freedom of conscience, speech, meeting and association, and the end of imprisonment without trial. In addition, no new law would become effective without the approval of the Duma, a consultative body.
0コメント